Rahi Sarnobat won the first gold medal for India at the ongoing International Shooting Sport World Cup at Osijek, sweeping aside the field in women’s 25m sports pistol on Monday.
The 30-year-old Indian topped the podium with a total of 39 points, while the silver medallist Mathilde Lamolle of France had 31 points – a vast difference. Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina won bronze with 28 points.
Manu Bhaker, the other Indian in the final, was second to be eliminated finishing in seventh position.
Her stupendous performance in the final included perfect scores in the third, fourth, fifth and the sixth series.
“After I got assurance about the gold, it was more about technicalities for me in the last few series as I wanted to try out a few things so I was doing that,” she said about her stellar performance.
“This competition was absolutely not about performance or medal because I was trying out a few things which I am going to do in the Olympic Games and this is the final competition before that.
“It was more about trying out things and finalising every thing before the Olympics for the last time and that was just that,” she added. “...I have to keep working on this up to and after the Olympic Games as well,” she said.
Earlier in qualification, Sarnobat had finished second while Bhaker was third after the precision and rapid rounds. Sarnobat fired a brilliant 296 in the rapid fire round on Monday and her precision score was an equally impressive 295 on Sunday. Bhaker recorded a total of 588 to qualify third after firing a 296 in the rapid fire round on Monday following an impressive 292 in the precision round on Sunday.
Sarnobat’s gold is India’s first in the ongoing edition after the country secured one silver and two bronze medals earlier in the tournament.
The shooting World Cup in Croatia, the last before the Tokyo Olympics, has seen a largely average performance from the Indian contingent who are currently training in the country. India has won four medals so far with only Saurabh Chaudhary winning an individual medal, a bronze in men’s 10m air pistol.