Manu Bhaker clinched her second gold medal at International Shooting Sport Federation President’s Cup on Tuesday, which she won on the final day partnering Turkey’s Ozgur Varlik in the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team competition.
Rahi Sarnobat landed yet another top class international medal to her tally, pocketing the women’s 25m pistol silver, which ended in the Polish city of Wroclaw on Tuesday.
The efforts meant that Indians won a total of five medals in the prestigious year ending event.
Bhaker had earlier partnered Iran’s Javad Foroughi to clinch the 10m air pistol mixed team title, on day two of competitions.
The seasoned Rahi Sarnobat was in her elements again on Tuesday in the women’s 25m pistol final. She shot 3s and 4s consistently to climb from fifth place initially to second after the fifth five-shot series. She maintained that position from there on and was three points behind the gold-winning German Doreen Veenekamp, going into the 10th and final series. She managed two hits to the German’s one to end with 31 - just two behind Veenekamp. She missed a few crucial shots in the last two series after suffering a pistol malfunction when on 29 points with the leader on 32.
It was a classy field featuring Rio Olympic champion Anna Korakaki of Greece and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Xiao Jiaruixuan of China among others. Manu Bhaker, the second Indian in this field finished sixth with a score of 17.
But Bhaker was not to be denied on the day, as she came back later to partner Turkey’s Varlik and win the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team by a margin of 9-7 over the Chinese/Estonian pair of Xiao and Peeter Olesk. The Indo-Turkish pair opened up a healthy lead of 6-2 in the early stages but Xiao and Peeter fought back to level the match at 6-6. Bhaker and Ozgur then went ahead 8-6 before tying the final series at 5-5 to earn the crucial ninth point and seal the deal.
Besides Bhaker’s two gold medals and Rahi’s silver on the final day, Saurabh Chaudhary also won an individual silver and Abhishek Verma, an individual bronze, in the men’s 10m air pistol competition.
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