Manu, Elavenil, Divyansh claim top honours at WC
PUTIAN (CHINA): Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Panwar clinched gold medals in their respective events to give the country its best-ever single-day show at the ISSF World Cup Finals, here on Thursday.
The 17-year-old Manu fired her way to gold with a junior world record in the women’s 10m air pistol event, while the 20-year-old Elavenil finished first in the women’s 10m air rifle competition. Later, another teen sensation, Divyansh, who is all of 17, came on top in the men’s 10 air rifle event with a final score of 250.1.
India is currently top of the table with three gold medals, followed by China (two gold, one silver, one bronze). Manu shot 244.7 to notch up the top prize in the prestigious season-ending tournament of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). In the same event, Manu’s compatriot, Yashaswini Singh Deswal, finished sixth in the final.
Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic won silver with 241.9, while Quian Wang of China bagged bronze with 221.8. Elavenil shot 250.8 to edge past Taiwan’s Lin Ying-Shin (250.7). Romania’s Laura-Georgeta Coman finished third with 229. Elavenil had qualified second for the final with 631.1, behind Ying-Shin (632.3).
Mehuli Ghosh also qualified for the final, but ended sixth with 163.8. Divyansh then ensured that women didn’t hog the limelight completely with his stellar performance. He qualified third for the final with 627.1. In the final, he steered ahead of Hungary’s Istvan Peni (250) and Slovakia’s Patrik Jany (228.4) to clinch top spot.
In the men’s 10m air pistol event, Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary qualified for the final, but couldn’t claim medals. Abhishek topped the qualification charts with 588 but ended fifth in the final with 179.4. Saurabh was seventh in qualification with 581 before signing off sixth in the last-eight stage with 159.8.