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ISSF Junior WC: Manu Bhaker bags gold in 10m Air Pistol
Indian shooter Manu Bhaker bagged her second World Cup gold medal.
New Delhi: Indian shooter Manu Bhaker bagged her second World Cup gold medal inside a month, winning the junior women's 10m air pistol gold at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Sydney, Australia.
The 16-year-old did a double on the day, winning the Team Gold in the event as well with compatriots Devanshi Rana, who missed out on an individual medal after being placed fourth in the final, and Mahima Turhi Agrawal to end an amazing month for herself and extend a golden six month or so period of excellent performances.
Earlier, Bhaker created waves across the shooting world by winning the Senior World Cup gold at the same 10m Air Pistol Olympic event, in her senior team debut. She then traversed across the globe via India to faraway shoot this Gold in the Junior World Cup.
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This comes after the Asian Championships silver last year in Japan to secure a Youth Olympics quota for her country and nine Golds at the Shooting Nationals, all in the span of six months.
On Saturday, the day four of the Junior World Cup, Manu qualified second with a score of 570 behind a Thai girl who was in great form throughout the day- Kanyakom Hirunphoem was a clear six points at the top with 576. Also Kanyakom, even though still a junior, was far more experienced than Manu, having represented her country in the Asian Games at Incheon, way back in 2014.
She shot off the blocks very strong in the final as well and appeared to be peaking just at the right time, when she edged ahead of Manu at the end of the 20th shot of the 24-shot final.
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The duo was well clear of the chasing pack of six from the very onset of the final. At the end of the 22nd shot, Kanyakom was a point clear of Manu and had 0.9 to defend on the last shot. Manu shot a 9.8 while Kanyakom faltered with a 7.9 to seal the deal for the Indian champion. Manu finished with 235.9 to Kanyakom's 234.9 while Kaiman Liu of China won Bronze with 214.2.
After briefly being in contention for the Bronze, India's Devanshi Rana finished fourth with a finals score of 195.3. The trio of Manu, Devanshi and Mahima logged a combined 1693 to win the Team Gold ahead of China (Silver with 1681) and Thailand (bronze with 1673).
India also picked up a further one gold, two silvers and two bronze medals in the day to finish with five gold, two silvers and five bronze medals in total, just behind China who have six golds.(ANI)