The Indian women and men’s teams won gold medals in the 10m Air Pistol events on Sunday at the ongoing ISSF World Cup being held in New Delhi. The Indian women’s team of Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Shri Nivetha Paramanantham beat their Polish opponents with relative ease to secure the gold medal. Right after the women’s team struck gold, the men’s team, comprising Saurabh Chaudhary, Shahzar Rizvi and Abhishek Verma beat their Vietnamese counterparts 17-11 to make it a memorable day for India. India now lead the medals tally ahead of USA with eight medals. India have so far won three gold medals — joint highest with the USA. India also have three silver medals and two bronze.

In the women’s event, the shooting might not have been of the highest calibre from both teams in the gold medal match, but the Indian trio did enough to win 16-8 and take home the top prize.

India started slowly with the Poles taking a 4-2 lead but after that they upped their game even as their opponents started struggling.

After trailing 2-4, India won the next 6 series to open up a 14-4 lead. On the brink of defeat, the Polish team fought back to win the next two series and make it 14-8 but they had left themselves too much to do in the end as India took the next series to bag the gold with a 16-8 score.

Yashaswini Deswal, who had won gold in the individual women’s 10m air pistol event, was once again on fire continuously getting high scores to keep India ahead. In contrast, Manu Bhaker and Nivetha Paramanantham struggled in parts but still had enough in their locker to outgun the Poles.

The men’s event was a more evenly-contested affair. India were trailing for most part of first half of the event, with the Vietnam shooters holding a marginal advantage.

Promoted

The Vietnamese took a 9-5 lead but that seemed to stir the Indians into life. Thereafter, it was all India as Saurabh Chaudhary, Shahzar Rizvi and Abhishek Verma upped the ante to notch high scores.

In no time, India caught up to make it 9-9 and then streaked ahead, taking a 15-9 lead. Vietnam won the next series, but India took the one after that to bag the gold medal.