Wonder woman Rahi Sarnobat grabs India’s 1st gold, Bhaker ends seventh

Osijek (Croatia), June 28

Olympics-bound Rahi Sarnobat displayed sensational form to clinch the women’s 25m pistol gold medal at the ISSF shooting World Cup here today but teen sensation Manu Bhaker ended seventh in the same event.

Sarnobat’s gold is India’s first in the ongoing edition after the country secured one silver and two bronze medals earlier in the tournament.

The 30-year-old Sarnobat fired a final score of 39 after qualifying second with a total of 591. Her stupendous performance in the final included perfect scores in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth series.

“After I got assurance about the gold, it was more about technicalities for me in the last few series as I wanted to try out a few things so I was doing that,” Sarnobat said.

“This competition was absolutely not about performance or medal because I was trying out a few things which I am going to do in the Olympic Games and this is the final competition before that. It was more about trying out things and finalising everything before the Olympics for the last time and that was just that,” she added.

Nonetheless, winning a gold here has given Sarnobat the belief that her preparations for the Tokyo Games are on the right track. “...I have to keep working on this up to and after the Olympic Games as well,” she said.

The silver went to France’s Mathilde Lamolle, who scored 31 in the final. Rio Olympics silver-medallist in the 10m air pistol, Vitalina Batsarashkina of Russia, won bronze with 28 hits, bowing out after the ninth five-shot series.

In qualification, Sarnobat fired a brilliant 296 in the rapid fire round today. Her precision score was an equally impressive 295 yesterday.

Bhaker recorded a total of 588 to qualify third after firing a 296 in the rapid fire round today following an impressive 292 in the precision round yesterday.

However, she was eliminated early in the final with a disappointing score of 11, losing a shoot-off to Bulgaria’s Viktoria Chaika.

There was disappointment for India in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions competition as both Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil failed to make the finals.

Sawant ended 20th in qualification with a score of 1168, while Moudgil was further down at 32nd after firing 1162. — PTI

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