Eighteen-year old Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar shot down the men’s rifle 3-positions junior world record en route to winning gold on the concluding day of the International Shooting Sport Federation Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.

Aishwarya’s medal ensured India finished on top of the medal tally with 10 gold, nine silver and five bronze for a total medal count of 24 from the competition.

The youngster from Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, shot 1171 in the grueling 120-shot qualification round where a shooter fires 40-shots each in the kneeling, prone and standing positions. His score was enough for fourth place in a field of 72 where the top eight made it to the medal round.

Facing a strong field in the finals, with Russian Grigoril Shamakov (the reigning Youth Olympic Games champion) in the mix as well, Aishwarya began strong and finished even stronger for a resounding victory.

He led at the end of the first 15 kneeling shots, surrendered it to Hungarian double world championship junior medalist Zalan Pekler at the end of next 15 prone position shots and then was first off the blocks in the standing position, generally a difficult transition where India has struggled earlier, to regain the lead after the 35th to never look back.

By the time of the final and 45th shot, he was a clear 3.4 ahead of Pekler and finished with an outstanding 10.4 for a finals junior world record score of 459.3, shattering Czech talent Filip Nepejchal’s mark of 458.7 set in the Beijing world cup earlier this year.

In the process, the youngster also ensured that India topped the medal tally, which a Chinese 1-2 in the event could have jeopardized. China eventually finished second with eight gold and 24 medals in all.

Esha Singh and Gaurav Rana brought further cheer to India in the final event of the competition, the 10m air pistol mixed team event, winning bronze by beating the Chinese pair of Li Xue and Wang Zhehao 16-14 in the medal match-up. Hosts Germany won gold in the event.

India has now topped the medal charts in four of the eight ISSF competitions this year.