ISSF World Cup: Divyansh Singh Panwar shoots world record, Sonam Maskar wins silver medal

Divyansh Singh Panwar set a world record in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event and picked up the country’s second gold medal in the ISSF World Cup. A day later, debutant Sonam Maskar bagged a silver medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle event. India are now firmly on top of the season-opening World Cup stage with two golds and three silver medals after three days of competition. Divyansh, 21, shot 253.7 at the Egypt International Olympic City Shooting, bettering China’s Sheng Lihao’s 253.3, set at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. Divyansh had made a glorious start by topping qualification with a world-class 632.4. In the 24-shot final, he shot with precision and left the silver-winning Italian Dani Sollazo 1.9 points behind. Not only did he not shoot any score below 10, two of his shots, the fourth and sixth were perfect 10.9s. “I am happy to win gold after a long time. I had been shooting well in recent times but was missing out. This will surely give me confidence coming into an important year,” said Divyansh after the win. This was Divyansh’s fifth ISSF World Cup stage gold medal and second individual gold after his last effort came in 2019. On Monday, Sonam, competing in her maiden World Cup, shot 252.1 in the eight-woman final, finishing 0.9 points behind Germany’s anna Janssen. Poland’s Aneta Stankiewicz took the bronze medal. Two Indians, Sonam and Nancy, had made the final after posting scores of 632.7 and 633.1 to finish the qualification round in fifth and fourth spots respectively. In the 24-shot final, Sonam started strongly, her score of 53.0 in the first five-shot series giving her the lead. It was a closely contested final from the word go. At the end of 10 shots, the difference between the leader Sonam and Nancy, who was placed eighth at that stage, was just 0.8. Anna took over the lead from Sonam after the 14th shot as, despite a 10.9 again from Sonam on the 13th, Anna’s consistent high 10s bore fruit. At one stage it did look that it would be a double podium for India, but Poland’s Stankiewicz pipped Nancy for bronze, while Sonam could not catch up with the experienced Janssen.