ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup: Sarabjot Singh of Haryana wins first gold for India

India's Sarabjot Singh opened India's medal tally by winning the gold medal in the men's air pistol event at the ISSF Pistol/Rifle World cup in Bhopal on Wednesday. India's Varun Tomar also got the bronze medal.

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Sarabjot, the junior world champion in the team and mixed team categories, defeated Ruslan Lunev of Azerbaijan 16-0. He had shot 585 in the qualifying round of the ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup. Earlier, Sarabjot won two gold medals in the 65th National Shooting Championship by securing the top position in the individual 10-meter air pistol event.

Sarabjot shot 98, 97, 99, 97, 97, 97 in the six qualification series suggesting he would be hard to beat. While Liu Jinyao of China finished second at 584. 19-year-old Varun, after qualifying eighth and last finished third at 250.3. Moreover, Six other shooters, Jason Solari (Switzerland, 583 points), Vladimir Svechinko (Uzbekistan, 582), Frederik Larsen (Denmark, 580), Zhang Jie (China, 580), Ruslan Lunev (Azerbaijan, 579) and Varun Tomar (India, 579) completed the list of eight marksmen who made it to the ranking round.

At the end of the ranking round of the ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup, Sarabjot (253.2 points) and Ruslan (251.9) were first and second respectively and both of them entered the gold-medal round high on confidence, while Varun scored 250.3 to settle for bronze. However, in the battle for the top podium place, the Azerbaijan shooter was no match for Sarabjot. The gold-medal match was a race to 16 points and Sarabjot was simply unstoppable, winning 16-0.

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The ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup is being organized in India only. Competitions in this World Cup have started from today at the 'MP State Shooting Academy' in Bhopal. There will be separate rifle/pistol shooting competitions in this ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup. More than 200 shooters from more than 30 countries have reached Bhopal to participate in this. More than 75 technical officials have also come with them. A total of 37 shooters from India are participating, of these, 20 are men and 17 are women.