Saurabh Chaudhary Breaks 10m Air Pistol World Record To Win Gold At ISSF World Cup; Qualifies For Tokyo Olympics

Sixteen-year-old Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary has won gold in the Men’s 10m air pistol final in the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup in New Delhi on Sunday (24 February). By doing so, he has also confirmed his spot in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020, reports Times of India.

The Commonwealth, Asian and Youth Olympic Games gold medallist sat on the top from the first series of five shots itself to finish a world record score of 245.0 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Siberian shooter Damir Mikec won the second place after finishing with 239.3, 5.7 points short from the top to bag the other Olympic spot available at the event. China’s Wie Pang won the bronze with 215.2 points.

“I knew I had a big lead but didn't bother about it. Just kept doing what I was doing," Chaudhary said. He now holds both- junior and senior world records in the men’s 10 m air pistol category finals.

Chaudhary said that he won the Olympic spot and created world record only because he focused on winning gold. The Meerut boy qualified into the finals on Sunday after he finished top of the qualification round by scoring 587. Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh, the other Indian shooters in the category, failed to enter the medal round.

Youth Olympics gold medallist Manu Bhaker finished a disappointing fifth, with 22 points in the women's 25 m Pistol final. Earlier, Manu had scored an impressive 590 - 296 in Precision Stage and 294 in Rapid Fire Stage to qualify into the finals. Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat failed to reach the medal round after scoring 580 points - 287 and 293 in Precision and Rapid Fire respectively.

Other Indian medal hopefuls- Sanjeev Rajput and Parul Kumar failed to qualify in the men's 50 m Rifle qualification phase after finishing 25th (1169 points) and 22nd (1170 points) respectively.