No stopping Manu

Sydney, March 28

Manu Bhaker and Anmol Jain secured India’s seventh gold medal at the ISSF junior World Cup by winning the mixed 10m air pistol event with a qualification world record on Tuesday. Ganemat Sekhon bagged an individual bronze medal in the junior women’s skeet, shooting a 36 in the final. In the mixed 10m air rifle event, 17-year-old Shreya Agrawal and 19-year-old Arjun Babuta won the bronze medal, finishing with 432.8 points.
Manu and Jain dominated right from the start and entered the final by smashing the junior qualification world record with 770 points. They finished with a 5.6 advantage on their closest rivals, China’s Liu Jinyao and Li Xue. The duo took control of the proceedings early on in the final as well, and gradually opened up a big lead over their closest rivals. They eventually finished with 478.9 points, just 1.8 points short of the current world record. China claimed the other two medals in the event. Another Indian team in the event, comprising 18-year-old Gaurav Rana and 19-year-old Mahima Agrawal, finished fourth with a tally of 370.2 points.
Shreya, who trains at Olympics medallist Gagan Narang’s Gun For Glory (GFG) Academy, said, “I am really happy to have secured a bronze medal for the country amid tough competition.” As three out of five shooters from GFG who claimed medals at the ISSF Junior World Cup, Narang was overjoyed. “We at GFG always knew these shooters have the potential to beat anybody on a given day. And after three out of five of them secured medals, it just goes on to show that we are headed in the right direction,” Narang said.
Overall, India are placed second with 18 medals, including seven gold, while China continue to lead the tally with 22 podium finishes, including eight gold medals.