Hyderabad: Indian contingent registered its most-successful performance at any ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Rio de Janeiro. India finished its campaign winning golds in the mixed team events. Overall, India won 5 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals.
Teen stars Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary grabbed the 10m air pistol gold as India finished their campaign on a high picking up the maximum possible medals on the final day of the tournament.
Here are some of the interesting numbers from the tournament.
- 6 number of gold medals won by Saurabh Chaudhary in World Cups this year. His tally is only exceeded by two countries - India (16) and China (8).
- 5 number of gold medals won by India in Rio.
- Manu Bhaker is now joint-first on the list of Indians with most gold medals at World Cups. Both Bhaker and Chaudhary have six golds each at the age of 17. Indian shooters dominated the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Rio de Janeiro.
- Abhishek Verma became the second Indian after Chaudhary to win two golds in the men's 10m air pistol event. India won gold in this event at all the four World Cups this year.
- 7 number of medals won by Chaudhary this year. He is already second on the list of Indians with most medals at World Cups. Jitu Rai leads the list with nine medals- three golds, three silvers, and three bronzes. Bhaker, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Ronjan Sodhi are tied-third with six each.
- Only 2 Indians won gold in the women's 10m air rifle event at a World Cup before Elavenil Valarivan in Rio. In 2003, Anjali Bhagwat won gold in Fort Benning while Apurvi Chandela won golds in New Delhi and Munich earlier this year.
- 3 number of medals won by Sanjeev Rajput in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event at World Cups in his career. Interestingly, he is the only India to win more than one medal in this event at World Cups. Both Gagan Narang and Akhil Sheoran clinched one gold each in this event at World Cups.Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary won the 10m air pistol gold on the final day of ISSF World Cup.
- Yashaswini Singh Deswal became just the 2nd Indian after Bhaker to win gold at a World Cup in the women's 10m air pistol event. Earlier, Bhaker had won the gold medal in Guadalajara in 2018.
- India won 2 quotas for the Tokyo Olympics in the just concluded Rio de Janeiro World Cup. India has so far won nine Olympic quotas in all. With Asian Shooting Championships is scheduled to take place in Doha in November India will have a good chance to book as many as 15 quotas.
- Rajput won a quota in men's 50m rifle 3 positions and Deswal won a quota in the women's 10m air pistol event.
