Sarnobat managed to post a final score of 39 after an impressive qualifier in which she was second with 591 points.
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Indian shooter Rahi Sarnobat displayed an exceptional performance as she won the gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol event at the ISSF shooting World Cup in Osijek on Monday. The triumph will be an incredible boost of morale for Sarnobat who will be flying to Tokyo next month for the Olympics. In the same event, teenage shooter Manu Bhaker finished seventh. The gold medal is India’s first in the ongoing shooting competition. The nation’s athletes had bagged one silver medal and two bronze medals earlier in the tournament. Sarnobat managed to post a final score of 39 after an impressive qualifier in which she was second with 591 points.
The silver medal was taken by French shooter Mathilde Lamolle who scored 31 points, eight less than the Indian gold medalist. Sarnobat was exceptional in qualifying, especially during the rapid fire round in which she hit a score of 296 on Monday. She was also equally brilliant on Sunday as her precision score was 295. Bagging a gold medal at the world cup will indeed be a huge psychological boost for the 30-year-old. She will surely be considered as one of the favorites to bag a medal for India at The Games.
Manu Bhaker also seemed set to bag a medal for India in the same event as Sarnobat. She had made 588 points to qualify third. Bhaker also had a very impressive performance in the rapid fire round in which she scored 292 points. However, that was where her run ended. She was ousted by Bulgaria’s Viktoria Chaika early in the final after making a rather disappointing score of 11.
Bhaker, however, will not return empty handed from the competition. Earlier, she had teamed up with Saurabh Chaudhary for the 10m air pistol mixed team event in which the duo bagged the silver medal. She has also won the women’s 10m air pistol team bronze medal along with Sarnobat and Yashaswini Deswal. India’s other bronze medal was won by Chaudhary in the men’s 10m air pistol event.
With the Olympics just around the corner, these athletes will be hoping to win a medal in their respective events for the country. There will be immense pressure on their shoulders, especially after this performance. Sarnobat will be under the most pressure as a world cup gold medal quite understandably puts a lot of expectations in the fans’ heads. However, the positive thing is that all the athletes seem to be in a good run of form leading up to The Games.
