The Indian Women’s 25m Pistol team, comprising of Rahi Sarnobat, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan, made it to the gold medal match late on Saturday, at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Cairo, Egypt.
Reaching this far in the event ensures a fourth medal for India at the ongoing competition.
The trio topped the second qualification stage with a combined effort of 441 out of a possible 450, to set up the summit clash with Singapore, who also shot the same score, but with three lesser inner 10s than India. Chinese Taipei and Japan will clash for the bronze medal.
India already has two gold and one silver medal from the tournament and are currently second on the medal tally after Saurabh Chaudhary (men’s 10m air pistol) and the women’s 10m air pistol team had struck gold, while Esha Singh had won silver in the individual women’s air pistol event.
Medals are also to be decided in the Men’s 25M Rapid Fire Pistol, where India’s Anish Bhanwala is best placed after the first duelling round of qualification on Saturday. He shot a good 291 to be in ninth position currently in the 37-strong field. Former Olympic Champion Christian Reitz of Germany led the field with a sublime 295.
Anish’s compatriots Bhavesh Shekhawat with 286 and Gurpreet Singh with 283 were further down in 20thand 25th spots respectively.
The third medal event on Sunday, the penultimate day of competitions, will be the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Mixed Team competition, where two Indian pairs - Shriyanka Sadangi and Akhil Sheoran as well as Sift Kaur Samra and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, will be in contention.
