India's Saurabh Chaudhary won the gold medal in the men's 10m air pistol event with a world record score of 245.0 in the final at the ISSF New Delhi Shooting World Cup on Sunday. In addition, he sealed a berth for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, his top-two finish earning him one of two quota places available in an event for a country.
#SaurabhChaudhary winning moments ��#ISSFWorldCup #Gold �� pic.twitter.com/IcHJaMJwUf
- OGQ (@OGQ_India) February 24, 2019
In qualification, Chaudhary finished third with a score of 587-20x, behind 588-27x shot by Lee Daemyung of South Korea and 587-23x shot by Pang Wei of China. India's Abhishek Verma (576-20x) and Ravinder Singh (576-16x) finished 24th and 26th, respectively.
This was Chaudhary's first World Cup medal at the senior level, that too in his first such tournament. Last year, he won the 10m air pistol gold at the Asian Games -- his first international tournament at the senior level.
In 2018, Chaudhary also won gold at the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, in addition to being crowned junior world champion and Youth Olympic champion. Additionally, he has won one gold and one silver at the Junior Asian Championships, and a gold at a Youth Asian Championships.
India's tally at the World Cup is now up to two gold medals, with Apurvi Chandela delivering a near-perfect performance en route to winning the women's 10m air rifle event on Saturday.
Manu Bhaker finishes fifth in the women's 25m air pistol
With a score of 22/35, Manu Bhaker finished fifth in the final of the women's 25m air pistol. The 17-year-old had finished 2nd in qualifying with a score of 590, 1 point behind eventual gold medallist Veronika Major who set a world record with here score of 40 (out of 50).
China's Jingjing Zhang finished in second place while Iran's Haniyeh Rostamiyan rounded off the podium.
