ISSF World Championships 2022: 18-year-old Rudrankksh Patil wins gold in 10m Air Rifle event

18-year-old shooter Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil won the gold medal at the ISSF World Championships 2022 in Cairo on Friday. He became the champion in the 10m Air Rifle event. He is the second Indian shooter to do so after shooter Abhinav Bindra.

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In addition, Rudrankksh has confirmed his ticket to Paris Olympics 2024 with this win. This is India's second Olympic quota. The 18-year-old beat Italy's Danilo Dennis Sollazzo 17-15 in the ISSF World Championships 2022. At one point he was trailing in the final but he came back strongly and won the match.

There are 4 quotas available for the Olympics from the World Championships this year. India has secured its first quota in the men's trap event at the Shotgun World Championships in Croatia recently through Bhowneesh Mendiratta.

Rudrankksh has participated in the World Championships for the first time. He was at one point 4-10 in the match. The Italian shooter held the lead but the Indian shooter made a comeback in the last and won the medal. In 2006, Beijing Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra also won gold in the 10m air rifle event in Croatia.

In the ranking round, Rudrankksh surpassed former world champion and Tokyo bronze medalist Yang Haoran and Tokyo silver medalist Lihao Sheng of China. Tokyo gold medalist William Shaner of America could not make it to the top 8. Rudrankksh broke into the top eight with a world championship record score of 633.9.

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Another Indian in the top eight, Kiran Jadhav, could not make it to the medal round after finishing eighth. Babuta finished 48th in the qualification with a score of 625.3. Meanwhile, in the women's 10m air rifle event, Indian shooters failed to make it to the ranking rounds. Mehuli Ghosh was the best of the three Indians and was ranked 10th with a score of 629.7, while Meghana Sajjanar was ranked 13th with a score of 629.2. Elavenil Valarivan finished 19th in the qualification round with a score of 628.7.