Indians clean-sweep women’s 25m pistol at Suhl Junior World Cup

NEW DELHI: Indian shooters made a clean sweep of the women's 25m pistol competition on the penultimate day of the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, to consolidate their lead at the top of the medal tally on Sunday.

Rhythm Sangwan won gold, Manu Bhaker silver and

Naamaa Kapoor bronze, as India completely dominated the Olympic event.

The Indian trio were head and shoulders above the field from the qualification round itself.

Rhythm topped the qualification round with 588 while Manu was second with 584 and

Naamya third with 583.

Then, in the eliminators, Naamya topped hers with 12 hits while Rhythm followed her to the medal round in second with 11 hits. Manu topped the second eliminator comfortably with 17 hits as German Michaela Boesl won a shootoff to become the fourth finalist with nine hits to her name.

Then, Naamya ensured an Indian sweep of the medals, taking out the German in a tense three-shot shoot-off, as both had tied on 10 hits after four 5-shot series rounds.

Meanwhile, there was a battle at the top, as Manu initially led Rhythm, but the latter caught up by the fifth series. He then surged ahead after the seventh as Manu registered a blank.

The eventual scores read 31 hits for Rhythm, 26 for Manu, while Naamya finished with 16 hits to her name.

Shivam Dabas won India a silver in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions junior competition, going down 15-17 to Italian Danilo Sollazzo where the latter also had to survive a shootoff to win in what was a very close final.

India have so far won nine gold, 10 silver and one bronze for an overall haul of 20 medals so far.