BHOPAL: It was double delight for Indian pistol shooter Manu Bhaker on Saturday. She won India's sixth medal - a bronze - in the Bhopal leg of the ISSF World Cup and ended her senior international medal drought of two years. She won her last international medal in Delhi 2021.
China continued their domination with yet another gold medal, while Cairo gold medallist Aishwary Pratap Tomar had to settle for the fourth position. China have won 6 gold medals so far, along with 2 silver and 2 bronze. India are in second position with a gold, a silver and 4 bronze while Germany are third with a gold and a silver medal.
On the penultimate day, the first event was a disappointment for home favourite Aishwary in the men's 50m air rifle 3P. After securing top spot in the 60-shot qualification round with a score of 591, he appeared to have lost the rhythm in the finals. "I was not under any pressure but things did not go my way," said Aishwary.
In the bronze medal match, Swiss 3P specialist Jan Lochbihler edged out Aishwary in the top eight ranking round. He finished the 40-shot round with a score of 407.4 while Aishwary, courtesy three five-shot series in the 40s in the final standing position, finished with a score of 405.5. China's Du Linshu won the gold defeating Hungary's Peni Istavan 16-10 in the gold medal match.
In the women's 25 m rapid fire pistol, Manu (third with a score of 584) and Esha Singh (seventh with a score of 581) qualified for the ranking rounds. In front of packed galleries, both Esha and Manu were in the first ranking match along with Germany's Doreen Vennekamp and Xiong Yaxuan. Esha could not make it to the medal match as she stood third with 11 hits out of 20, while Manu with 14 hits secured place in the medal match.
Manu changed her gear in the medal match as she gave a tough fight to China's Du Ziyue. "I was trying to be consistent in scoring the points," said Manu. The intense battle began after both Manu and Ziyue tied on 14 hits each. Manu (20 hits) tried to fight and scored well but that was not enough as Ziyue was just too good on the day. The Indian had to settle for a bronze.
"It was a good contest. I am happy to win the medal for the country and will try to change the colour next time," said Manu.
In the gold medal match, Doreen faced a tough battle against Ziyue. This could be gauged from the fact that Doreen touched the yellow metal with 30 hits out of 40 against Ziyue's 29. Finals of women's 3P and men's rapid fire pistol will be played on Sunday.
