Doha: Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP) champ Anish Bhanwala rounded off a profitable day two for India at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final (WCF) Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Doha, with a silver in the men’s 25m RFP.
The Indian ace finished on 31 hits, two behind Chinese legend and reigning Olympic champion Li Yuehong in the fourth final of Sunday at the Lusail Shooting Complex. This was Anish’s second WCF medal, an upgrade from the bronze he won at the same venue two years back. Reigning world champion Clement Bessaguet of France won bronze, It was Li’s second WCF gold and fifth WCF medal overall.
Anish’s efforts helped India win a second silver on the day after Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had done the same earlier in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions. Simranpreet Kaur Brar’s gold in the women’s 25m pistol, took India’s tally to two gold, three silver and one bronze medal, behind table toppers China’s tally of three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
India will have one more shot at a medal on Monday, the final day of competitions, when Zorawar Sandhu takes aim in the men’s Trap final.
With new ISSF formats applicable in Doha, it was eight instead of six finalists in the men’s RFP and Anish shot 583 in qualifying to take the fifth spot while Vijayveer shot 579 to become the first eighth qualifier in the event. Bessaguet topped with 590, while Yuehong, who missed most of the year, shot 587 for second.
After missing one shot each in his first two series in the eight-series final, Sidhu shot a clean five on the third series to avoid a five-way shoot-off for seventh place, as Czechia’s Matej Rampula was the first to be eliminated in eighth place.
German Emanuel Mueller shot two in his shoot-off series and then went into another shoot-off with teammate Peter Florian to bow out and then Anish, who had shot three to tide over in his first shoot-off of the final, shot a clean five in the fourth series to rise up to joint second.
The legend Yuehong was showing no signs of nerves as usual but Vijayveer was finding it difficult to get out of the three mode. Another solid four from Anish took him up to sole second and relegated the second Chinese Su to fifth as Vijayveer and Bessaguet tied for third.
Vijayveer struck two hits for his sixth series and the world champion responded with a clean five to confirm a third WCF medal.
All three medalists then shot four hits each as Anish went into a second shoot-off with the world champion, this time to decide bronze. Bessaguet yet again came up with a strong four, but Anish shot a sensational five out of five to go into the final duel with Li, two hits behind.
But a three was not enough and Li won a second WCF gold and a fifth WCF medal overall as it turned out to be a third international silver for Anish in the year.
Speaking after the match Anish said, “Yes it has turned out to be a great competition for me. I was vacationing after the world championships and trained just enough for this match. It was a great competition and I enjoyed the new format. It’s great because there are more finalists and so more nations will be able to cheer their athletes and earlier 50% of the finalists used to win medals so this is more competitive. It’s good for RFP overall.”
(IANS)
