ISSF New Delhi Shooting World Cup 2019: Saurabh Chaudhary smashes world record enroute gold medal, secures Olympic quota

New Delhi: Teenager Saurabh Chaudhary smashed the world record on his way to a gold medal in the ISSF World Cup on Sunday, securing the country’s third Tokyo Olympics quota. [caption id=“attachment_6144771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Saurabh Chaudhary. Reuters[/caption] The 16-year-old claimed the top honours in the men’s 10m air pistol event at the season-opening International Shooting Sport Federation event. Reacting to the win, Saurabh said, “It’s a very special and a very important medal. To do it in front of the home crowd was superb. However, I was not thinking of medal or quota while shooting; I just concentrated on my technique.” The Asian Games gold medallist ended the event with a total score of 245. Dami Mikec of Serbia was second in the podium with a score of 239.3, while the bronze medal was bagged by Wei Pang of China, who managed 215.2. Such was Saurabh’s dominance in the eight-men final that he finished the event 5.7 points ahead of the silver medallist, the gold assured even before his final shot. Saurabh has also broken the Junior World Record at the Junior World Championships in Changwon. Saurabh, who started strongly finished tied on top with Serbian Mikec at the end of the first series. In the second series, the champion shooter continued his good form and finished at the top. Other Indians competing in the event, Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh, failed to qualify for the final. Both Abhishek are Ravinder finished with a total score of 576 in the qualification round. With inputs from PTI.