India’s talented teenage shooters Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala continued their good form this year with medals at the 28th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes. They secured dominant wins in the Junior Women’s 10m Air Pistol and Junior Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol at the tournament being held at the Military Shooting Range in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Bhaker led from the front in her eight-woman final to emerge triumphant with a score of 238.7. France’s Camille Jedrzejewski won silver with 234.1 while Martina Marsalkova of Slovakia won bronze with 212.9.
Anish Bhanwala shot 33 out of 40 to clinch gold with a resounding five hits out of five finish. Matj Rampula won silver with 30 hits while Anhad Jawanda, another Indian, won bronze with a score of 21.
Bhaker had earlier topped her qualification round with a score of 574. India’s Devanshi Rana also qualified for the final, but finished seventh with a score of 130.4.
In the Junior Men’s 25m Pistol, three Indians made it to the six-man final. Jawanda finished third in qualifying with a score of 574, while Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh shot 571 and 568 respectively to claim and the fourth and sixth qualifying spots.
Both Bhaker and Bhanwala have been having a dream year with gold medals in both the ISSF Junior World Cup as well as the Commonwealth Games held earlier in the year.