Junior world champion Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event beating Hungarian Zakan Pekler 16-12 in the gold medal match at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Changwon, Korea. This was Tomar’s second ISSF World Cup gold and India’s fourth of the competition, helping them hold on to top spot in the standings.
After showing incredible form in topping the qualifiers on Friday, Aishwary topped the ranking round early on Saturday morning with a score of 409.8 to reach the final ahead of Pekler , who shot 406.7.
In the final Pekler did put up a good challenge but Aishwary was always ahead and in control and brought out the big shots when it mattered to close out the match
India, however, missed out on another medal as Manu Bhaker finished fourth in the Women’s 25m pistol after shooting extremely well to make it to the medal round. Her first task in the morning was to qualify for the ranking matches and she shot a steady rapid-fire round of 293 to qualify seventh with an overall effort of 581.
She then topped her four-woman ranking round missing just two shots across the four 5-shot series. Her score of 18 was four better than Singaporean Teh Xiu Hong who followed her through to eventually win gold.
Law of averages probably caught up with Manu in the medal round as she became the first to be eliminated in fourth place with just nine hits to her name after the fourth five-shot series.
In the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event, Anjum Moudgil qualified in sixth place for the ranking round with a score of 586 in the qualifiers. The finals will be held on Sunday.
India currently leads the medal tally with four gold medals, four silvers and one bronze medal.