ISSF Junior World Championships: Manu Bhaker claims third gold as India surge to top of standings

Lima: Olympian Manu Bhaker was at the heart of India’s outstanding performance with two more gold medals, as the country surged to the top of the junior world championships standings. India collected four gold medals out of the six on offer on competition day three, along with two silvers, to claim the top position in the ISSF event. India swept the 10m air pistol medal events, including the mixed, women’s and men’s team competitions as well the 10m air rifle men’s team gold, to end the day with six gold, six silver and two bronze medals. The USA are lying second with four gold, four silver and two bronze. The 19-year-old Bhaker now has a total of three golds from the championship. After partnering with Sarabjot Singh to clinch gold in the pistol mixed team, she teamed up with Rhythm Sangwan and Shikha Narwal to win the 10m air pistol women’s team event, beating Belarus 16-12 in the gold medal match. The men’s air pistol team then also struck gold with Naveen, Sarabjot Singh and Shiva Narwal putting it across the Belarussian me 16-14. Earlier in the day, the junior men’s 10m air rifle team had also won gold. The women’s 10m air pistol team event saw India dominate as they had topped round one of qualification earlier with a combined score of 1722 after 180 shots and then round two on Saturday, shooting 569 to Belarus’ 568. In the final, although it was even at the start, the Indians finished strong to seal the victory. In the men’s 10m air pistol team event, India were equally dominating, winning round one and round two before prevailing in a tight gold medal match against Belarus yet again. In the women’s 10m air rifle team event India’s Nisha Kanwar, Zeena Khitta and Atmika Gupta, topped the first qualification round but qualified for the gold match finishing second to the Hungarian trio of Eszter Mezaros, Eszter Denes and Lea Horvath, in round two. The Hungarians maintained that superiority in the final to strike gold - their first of the competition. It was also Atmika’s second silver of the day as she had teamed up with Rajpreet Singh in the day’s first medal event - the 10m air rifle mixed team, to finish second there as well. Rajpreet also now has one gold and one silver medal in his kitty.