ISSF WC: Manu Bhaker shoots gold in 10m Air Pistol

Manu Bhaker, who recently earned a quota place for the Beunos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games scheduled for October, bagged a gold medal in the women's 10m Air Pistol event, to put India firmly on top of the medals tally in the year's first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup here in Mexico's Guadalajara last evening.

Manu beat the host country's Alejandra Zavala, a two-time World Cup finals winner, with a 10.8 in the last shot of the 24 shot final, to come out on top with a score of 237.5.

Zavala ended at 237.1 while Celine Goberville of France won the Bronze with a score of 217.0. India's Yashaswini Singh Deswal missed out on a medal, finishing fourth with 196.1.

At the end of competition on Day Two, India's medal tally now stands at five and their two Gold and three Bronze medal have perched them on the very top with no country managing to win more than one medal so far.

Reacting after winning the medal, Manu Bhaker said, "I am extremely happy at winning Gold, especially as this is my first World Cup. I look forward to perform even better in upcoming competitions."

Commenting on the brilliant start to the new season of international shooting sport, Raninder Singh, President, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), said, "This is a dream start. The young guns and future of Indian shooting are firing on all cylinders and let us only hope that these are signs of even better things to come in the near future. Manu showed excellent composure for one so young and Ravi's consistency over the past year or so has also been heartening to watch. We are now hungry for more."

Earlier, Ravi Kumar won his first World Cup medal- a bronze in the men's 10m Air Rifle event. That was India's fourth medal of the competition with Shahzar Rizvi and Jitu Rai winning Gold and Bronze, respectively in the men's 10m Air Pistol and Mehuli Ghosh winning Bronze in the Women's 10m Air Rifle respectively, on Day One of competitions on Saturday.