India’s pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh wins gold in 10m air pistol at ISSF World Cup

India’s pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh was right on target, winning the men’s 10m air pistol gold on the opening day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Rifle/Pistol in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.

Singh outclassed Azerbaijan's Ruslan Lunev 16-0 to win India’s first gold medal of the competition.

The competition is being held at the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy ranges in Bhopal. While Singh won gold, Varun Tomar added bronze to the team tally as he finished third in the men’s 10m air pistol.

While the Indian shooter dominated the men’s 10m air pistol event, the Chinese shooters won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event through Li Xue. Li’s compatriot Qian Wei won bronze.

Singh displayed his class by dominating the 60-shot qualification round. Among the 24 medal contenders, Singh scored 585. In the final 25-shot match he scored of 253.2.

While Sarabjot was among the top three throughout the course of the ranking round, compatriot Tomar had to work extra hard to stay on course for the bronze medal. He finished with a 250.3 to settle for bronze.

Sumit Raman, the third Indian in the 10m pistol event, shot 577 to finish 13th.

China’s Li defeated two-time world championship medalist Doreen Veenekamp of Germany 17-5 in the gold medal match. Qian shot 250.2 in the final to win bronze and ensured China's second medal of the day.

Two other Indians in the women’s 10m air pistil Rhythm Sangwan and Manu Bhaker weren’t successful in earning a place in the final.

Rhythm shot 572, while Manu scored 568 in qualification to finish 13th and 16th, respectively. The top eight shooters in qualification enter the medal round.