A 16-year-old shooter from India once again made each of his seven other challengers feel old on by winning a World Cup gold in his first senior ISSF final; the world record in a men’s 10m air pistol final and the Olympic quota place that came along for Saurabh Chaudhary was the icing on the cake.
The final at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range was like watching a ‘catch me if you can’ sequence unfolding in front of a packed audience in the Finals hall. Right from the first series of five shots to the end, Chaudhary — a Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Youth Olympic Games gold medallist — firmed up his position at the top to finish a world record score of 245.0.
His dominance showed up in the point difference of 5.7 from the silver medallist, Damir Mikec. The Serbian finished with 239.3 to bag the second Olympic quota place available in the event.
The bronze medal went to Wei Pang of China, who scored 215.2 points.
The lead of 2.6 points after the first two series of five shots each would generally be considered enough to clinch the top place on the podium in any world competition, but it seems Chaudhary wasn’t satisfied with that.
“I knew I had a big lead but didn’t bother about it. Just kept doing what I was doing,” said Chaudhary, who now holds both junior and senior world record in men’s 10m air pistol finals.
A lot of cheer emanated from behind the eight shooters, with a boisterous crowd bobbing in the stands.
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“I have shot with such crowd everywhere, but never bothered about it. It was the same at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta,” he added.
About the Olympic quota and world record, Chaudhary said it happened because he was focused on winning gold.
“I never thought of the quota, just wanted to do my best. And never thought I will make a world record,” the Meerut boy reckoned.
Chaudhary made it to the final earlier on Sunday by finishing on top of his qualification round with a score of 587. The other two Indians in the fray — Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh — failed to make it to the medal round.
However, there was a setback in store for India as the Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist Manu Bhaker finished a disappointing fifth in the women’s 25m Pistol event.
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Bhaker could only muster a score of 22 in the eight-woman final after qualifying with an impressive 590 — 296 in Precision Stage and 294 in Rapid Fire Stage.
Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat failed to reach the medal match after racking up 580 points — 287 in Precision and 293 in Rapid Fire.
A lot of hopes were also attached with Sanjeev Rajput and Parul Kumar in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, but the duo failed to go past the qualification phase on Sunday. While Parul finished 22nd with 1170 points, Rajput was 25th in the standings with 1169 points.