India clinches both ISSF President’s Trophies to finish Putian World Cup Final on a high

India’s Rifle and Pistol Shooting squad finished their engagements at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol on a high, with their athletes being part of both the teams that won both the President’s Trophies for the 10m Air Pistol and Air Rifle Mixed Team competitions.

On the concluding day in Putian, China, Manu Bhaker first paired with world number one Russian Artem Chernousov to get the better of the pair of India’s Saurabh Chaudhary and Olympic champion Anna Korakaki 17-13 in the final.

It was then the turn of Divyansh Singh Panwar to team up with Croatian legend Snjezana Pejcic, to win the trophy in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed team competition. Divyansh and Snjezana prevailed 16-14 over India’s Apurvi Chandela and D. Zhang.

It got even better, when Shahzar Rizvi also won bronze in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team competition.

Both Manu and Divyansh had earlier won their individual 10m Air competitions as well to ensure that India topped the medals tally in Putian with a total of three gold medals.

That mirrored India’s dominance throughout the year in ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup stages, where in a first, India topped all four of them. The outstanding year for Indian shooting also ensured that three Indian shooters namely Saurabh Chaudhary in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol, Elavenil Valarivan in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle and Divyansh Singh Panwar in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle, finished on top of the 2019 ISSF rankings.

The Mixed Team events were a new format with competitors from different countries and as such the medals were not counted in the final tally.