New Delhi: India’s pistol girls affected a clean sweep of the Women’s 25M Pistol competition on the penultimate day of the ISSF Junior World Cup shooting championships in Suhl, Germany, to further consolidate their lead at the top of the medal tally.
Rhythm Sangwan won gold, Manu Bhaker silver and Naamaa Kapoor bronze, as India completely dominated the Olympic event on Sunday.
The Indian trio was head and shoulders above the field from the qualification round itself. Rhythm topped the round with a score of 588 while Manu was second with 584 and Naamya third with 583.
Then in the eliminators, Naamya topped with 12 hits while Rhythm followed her to the medal round in second with 11 hits. Manu topped the second eliminator comfortably with 17 hits as German Michaela Boesl won a shoot-off to become the fourth finalist with nine hits to her name.
Then Naamya ensured an Indian sweep of the medals, taking out the German in a tense three-shot shoot-off after both had tied on 10-hits after four 5-shot series rounds. Meanwhile, there was a battle at the top, as Manu initially led from Rhythm, but the latter caught up by the fifth series and then surged ahead after the seventh as Manu registered a blank.
Eventual scores read 31 hits for Rhythm, and 26 for Manu, while Naamya finished with 16 hits to her name.
Shivam Dabas also won India a silver in the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions Junior competition, going down 15-17 to Italian Danilo Sollazzo where the Italian also had to survive a shoot-off against the Indian to win in what was a very close final.
With a few more events to be decided, India have now amassed nine gold, 10 silver and one bronze for an overall haul of 20 medals so far.
(IANS)
