Anish Bhanwala wins 25m Rapid Fire bronze in World Cup Final

Anish Bhanwala won India’s first ever medal in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup final in Doha as he bagged a bronze medal in the prestigious event. Bhanwala, 21, shot 27 in the final to win the bronze medal. World Championship bronze medallist Peter Florian took the gold with 35 points while reigning world champion and double Olympic medallist Li Yuehong was second with 33 points. A medal in the season-ending competition capped a stupendous year for Bhanwala. The youngster won his first ever senior individual ISSF World Cup stage medal and his first senior Asian Championships medal while bagging quota place for the 2024 Paris Olympics. On the day in Doha, Bhanwala squeezed through to the six-man final with a score of 581, pipping Germany’s Christian Reitz. In the final, Florian shot four perfect fives to start with and then had another five in the seventh series, which gave him the gold medal. Yuehong also had four perfect series of five points and a couple of fours, which ensured that his low score of two in the seventh series did not deny him a medal less than a silver. Anish did well to keep pace with the high level of shooting, blasting two fives in his third and fourth series to go with three series of four-hits.