ISSF World Cup Final 2017: Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu hand India first gold medal at year-ending tournament

Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu combined to give India their first gold medal of the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi, clinching the top honours in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on the opening day of competitions. Rai, a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold-medallist, and Sidhu, also a former Commonwealth Games gold-winner, picked up their third gold together in the mixed team event, being held officially for the first time at an ISSF World Cup. [caption id=“attachment_4170533” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu pose atop the podium with their trophies. Image courtesy: Twitter/@ISSF_Shooting[/caption] The mixed team competitions were organised as test events in the World Cups held earlier this year and will be making their Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Rai and Sidhu qualified for the finals as top of the table and comfortably claimed the gold by pipping France, who secured the silver medal. “It feels great to win here in front of our people, even if this puts a little extra pressure on us,” said Sidhu at the end of the medal ceremony. “There were high expectations on us and a lot of eyes were looking at me and Rai for this final, that’s why we trained a lot together in the last days.” “We like this format, it’s a bit longer than the other ones we tried, but we like definitely like it,” added Rai, who previously won two medals during the ISSF World Cup Stage 1 that took place in New Delhi last February and March. With inputs from PTI