ISSF Junior World Cup: Saurabh Chaudhary clinches gold medal in 10m air pistol, sets new world record

New Delhi: Sixteen-year-old Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary on Tuesday set a new world record on the way to winning a gold medal in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany. Saurabh shot a total of 243.7 in the 10m air pistol event in the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation tournament. [caption id=“attachment_4603491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Saurabh Chaudhary. Image courtesy: Twitter @virenrasquinha[/caption] Saurabh, who earned the eighth gold medal for India in the prestigious meet, ended the eight-man final with a score of 243.7 after 24 shots, 4.1 points clear of Korean shooter Lim Hojin (239.6), who won the silver. Chinese Wang Zhehao walked away with the bronze medal with a total score of 218.7. The junior world record prior to this was 242.5 by Chinese shooter Wang Zhehao at the first ISSF Junior Wold Cup of the year in Sydney. The other Indian in the final, Anmol Jain, fell short of the podium, finishing fourth with 199.6. In the qualification, Saurabh had finished third with a score of 583, just ahead of Jain at 580. In the women’s 25m pistol final, Manu Bhaker was fifth with 19 hits and Devanshi Rana was eighth with five. The trio of Saurabh, Anmol and Abhishek Arya stood first in the 10m air pistol team event with a combined score of 1730, while the team of Arjun Singh Cheema, Gaurav Rana and Udhayveer Sidhu was third. In December last year, Saurabh qualified for the Youth Olympics Games with a gold medal and a junior world record at Asia Youth Olympic Games qualification. He had shot 243.1 in the final then. With 8 gold medals, 1 silver and 5 bronze, India continued to top the medal standings.