New Delhi, March 24: A dominant India swept the women’s 25m pistol event with Chinky Yadav winning gold after Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar’s historic top finish in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions final of the ISSF World Cup here on Wednesday.
At 20, Tomar became the youngest Indian ever to win gold in this event when he shot 462.5 to claim the top prize ahead of Hungary’s world number one Istvan Peni (461.6) and Denmark’s Steffen Olsen (450.9). After that, Yadav upstaged the experienced Rahi Sarnobat and the fancied Manu Bhaker to win gold in a 1-2-3 finish for India.
The country’s overall tally swelled to 19 with 9 gold, five silver and as many bronze medals. The 23-year-old Yadav prevailed over Sarnobat, 30, 4-3 in a shoot-off after their scores were tied at 32. Bhaker, aged only 19, shot 28 to settle for the bronze medal before being eliminated, leaving her two other compatriots to fight for the top prize at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. All three shooters have already bagged their quotas for the Tokyo Olympics.
Yadav, who fetched the Olympic quota with a second-place finish at the 14th Asian Championships in Doha in 2019, shot all the five targets twice in the finals.
Earlier this morning, Tomar started India’s day on a rousing note. “This will further boost my confidence ahead of the Tokyo Olympics,” he said after his maiden gold in a senior world cup.
After an impressive start, Tomar slipped in the standings but fought back strongly with a 10.4, 10.5 and 10.3 in the standing elimination stage. Tomar is an Olympics quota-holder.
He won the bronze medal in the 50 metre rifle 3 positions event at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships to secure a quota place for India at the Olympics.
Tomar, who failed to clear selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy seven years ago, led the eight-man final at the end of the kneeling position with 155.0 and was in second place after prone with 310.5, behind Olsen (311.4) and ahead of Peni (309.9).
The gold medal is a far cry from when he was disqualified from his first Nationals in 2015, and then suspended for an entire year due to a technical reason. (PTI)
