Wroclaw (Poland), Nov 9: Indian shooter Rahi Sarnobat claimed the silver medal after enduring a weapon malfunction in the women’s 25m pistol event of the President’s Cup here on Tuesday.
Young Manu Bhaker, after finishing sixth in the 25m individual event, came back to win the gold medal with Turkey’s Ozgur Varlik in the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team contest by a margin of 9-7 over the Chinese/Estonian pair of Xiao and Peeter Olesk.
Before that, seasoned Indian markswoman Sarnobat fired 31 in the final, missing few crucial shots in the last two series after suffering a pistol malfunction.
Before the problem occurred in her pistol, Sarnobat was going great guns, finding the target three times on the trot towards the end of the final.
The other Indian in the final, Bhaker was eliminated in the sixth place. Germany’s Vennekamp won the gold medal with a score of 33, while Mathilde Lamolle settled for the bronze medal with 27.
It was a strong field featuring Rio Olympic champion Anna Korakaki of Greece and Tokyo bronze medallist Xiao Jiaruixuan of China among others.
Later in the day, the Indo-Turkish pair of Bhaker and Varlik 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 Varlik then went ahead 8-6 before tying the final series at 5-5 to earn the crucial ninth point and seal the deal.
In all, India won five medals in the season-ending tournament which was earlier called the ISSF World Cup Finals.
Besides Bhaker’s gold medal and Sarnobat’s silver on the final day, Saurabh Chaudhary also won an individual silver and Abhishek Verma a bronze in the men’s 10m air pistol competition earlier in the tournament.
Bhaker also teamed up with Iran’s Olympic champion Javad Foroughi to win 10m air pistol mixed team title. (PTI)
