World Cup Final: Anish gives India a reason to cheer

Doha, November 24

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Young pistol shooter Anish Bhanwala today won India’s first-ever medal in the 25m rapid fire pistol event in the ISSF World Cup Final as he bagged a bronze in the prestigious event here.

Anish shot 27 in the final to win the bronze. World Championship bronze medallist Peter Florian of Germany took the gold with 35 hits while reigning world champion and double Olympics medallist Li Yuehong of China was second with 33 hits after eight series of five rapid fire shots.

The medal in the season-ending competition capped a momentous year for the 21-year-old, who won his first senior individual ISSF World Cup and senior Asian Championships medals, and also earned a Paris Olympics quota place.

Anish, who was India’s final start at the World Cup Final, just about made it to the six-man final. His qualification score of 581 was just enough to pip German ace Christian Reitz to seventh.

But with all three Baku World Championship medallists in the final, the Haryana lad had his work cut out. Florian blasted four perfect fives to start with and then had another five in the seventh series, which was enough to give him the gold.

Yuehong also had four perfect series of five hits and a couple of fours, which ensured that his score of two in the seventh series did not deny him a medal lesser than silver.

Anish, on the other hand, did well to keep pace with the high level of shooting all around, blasting two fives for his third and fourth series to go with three series of four hits.

Advani completes grand double

Doha: Pankaj Advani completed his fifth grand double with a dominating 5-0 win over compatriot Sourav Kothari in the final of the IBSF World Billiards Championship (point format) here today. The victory extended Advani’s world title tally to a staggering 27. The 38-year-old had defeated Kothari recently in the longer 1000-point format. The short format was a best-of-9 contest of 150-point frames. PTI