Manu, Elavenil, Divyansh shoot gold in ISSF World Cup Finals

Indian shooters touched a sensational high with Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan, and Divyansh Panwar grabbing gold medals in their respective events to award the country its best ever single-day show in the ISSF World Cup Finals in Putian on Thursday (November 21).

The young shooters brought laurels to the country by shooting their best-ever scores. The 17-year-old Bhaker fired her way to the gold with a junior world record in the women’s 10m air pistol event, while the 20-year-old Elavenil claimed the top honours in the women’s 10m air rifle competition.

Later, another teen sensation Divyansh, who is all of 17, finished on top in the men’s 10 air rifle competition with a final score of 250.1. India are currently top of the table with three gold medals, followed by China (two gold, one silver, one bronze).

Bhaker shot 244.7 to notch up the top prize in the prestigious season-ending tournament of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). In the same event Manus compatriot, Yashaswini Singh Deswal, finished sixth in the final.

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Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic won the silver with 241.9, while Quian Wang of China bagged the bronze with 221.8.

Elavenil, who had qualified second for the finals with a score of 631.1 behind Ying-Shin (632.3), shot a score of 250.8 to edge past Taiwan’s Lin Ying-Shin (250.7). Romania’s Laura-Georgeta Coman finished third with a score of 229. Mehuli Ghosh also qualified for the same events final but ended sixth with a score of 163.8.

Divyansh then ensured that women didn’t hog the limelight completely with his stellar performance. He qualified third for the final with a score of 627.1. In the final, he steered ahead of Hungary’s Istvan Peni (250) and Slovakia’s Patrik Jany (228.4) to clinch the top prize.

In the men’s 10m air pistol event, Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary qualified for the final but couldn’t claim medals.

Verma topped the qualifications with 588 but ended fifth in the final with a score of 179.4, while Chaudhary was seventh in the qualification with 581 before signing off sixth in the last-eight stage with 159.8.

(With inputs from agencies)