Chinki and Aishwary give ‘Golden Welcome’ to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju in Shooting world Cup

The winners of the Women’s 25M Pistol event on the podium at the New Delhi Shooting World Cup 2021 along with the Hon. Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports (Independent Charge) Kiren Rijiju. (L-R) Kiren Rijiju, Rahi Sarnobat, Chinki Yadav and Manu Bhaker.

The Range echoed with the sound of ‘BHARAT MATA KI JAI’

In the Women’ 25M Pistol event India’s Chinki Yadav, Rahi Sarnobat, and Manu Bhaker made a clean sweep by winning Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

India continues to dominate the medal tally with nine Gold, five Silver, and five Bronze for a total of 19 medals won

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi: There was a time when ‘old was gold’ for the Indian shooting fraternity. some names were ‘Regulars’ for years in National teams. Time has changed, now a young brigade of shooters (men and women) not only posing trouble for their established seniors but also say it quite often and freely with the confidence that ‘I don’t care the name and fame of the shooters who are  competing with me, I have to compete with myself.’ Today this is proved not once but twice by the two young Indian shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Chinky Yadav who belong to Bhopal. Both of them showed their class at senior level, not only won their first International  ISSF World Cup stage medalon but made the occasion even more memorable by striking gold in the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P) and Women’s 25M Pistol event respectively, at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Wednesday. India continued to dominate the medals tally with nine gold, five silver, and five bronze medals for a total of 19 medals won till now. The USA second with three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal.

Chinki Yadav, Rahi Sarnobat in action at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Wednesday.

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju had announced on Tuesday that he will be going to watch the ISSF world Cup Competition on Wednesday. Indian shooters, both men, and women gave a great ‘Golden Welcome’ to him by winning two Gold, a Silver, and a Bronze medal. When Rijiju entered the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range he was well aware that in the morning Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had won a Gold medal in the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event, In the presence of Rijiju Women’s 25M Pistol event was started and India’s three shooters Chinki Yadav, Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker made a clean sweep in the event and gave everyone a reason to joy and fly high. For each point, a top-class competition was seen between Chinki and Rahi, and the winner was decided through Shoot-off. Chinky won Gold, Rahi got Silver and Manu had to settle with the Bronze medal. During the medal ceremony, the Range echoed with the sound of ‘BHARAT MATA KI JAI’. 

Shooting on competition day six of the ongoing ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage being held in the national capital, 20-year old Aishwary set the ball rolling in the Men’s 3P, beating Air Rifle number one Istvan Peni of Hungary 462.5 to 461.6 in a cracking final.

It was Chinki’s turn thereafter, where she led an Indian clean sweep in the day’s second final, the Women’s 25M Pistol. In yet another close match, Chinki and her senior compatriot and fellow Tokyo Olympics quota holder Rahi Sarnobat had to go into a shoot-off to decide the gold medal, where the youngster prevailed 4-3. Both had earlier tied at 32-hits out of 50. 

Manu Bhaker of India won bronze in the event when she was eliminated after the ninth and penultimate five-shot series. At that stage, she had 28 hits out of 45.

Aishwary Tomar showing his Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions gold medal.

In Men’s 3P, shooting against such seasoned shooters as compatriot and double Olympian Sanjeev Rajput, former Prone World Champion Steffen Olsen of Denmark and multiple world cup medallist and world number 15 Jan Lochbihler of Switzerland, besides Hungarian Rifle ace Peni, young Aishwary started strong and led the field after the first 15 Kneeling position shots.

At the end of the second Prone position, however, Olsen cashed in on a couple of low-scoring shots by Tomar and took the lead with Peni right on Tomar’s shoulder in third. The youngster from the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy then staged a brilliant comeback in the final Standing position, shooting a high 52.2 in the final series before the eliminations (40-shots), to lead Peni, who had now risen to second, by 1.6 points. 

Aishwary Tomar in action during Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions event,

Going into the final 45thshot, Peni had reduced the gap to 0.9, but Aishwary held his nerve admirably to shoot a 10.3, the same as Peni, to secure gold.

In the Women’s 25M Pistol, Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat had earlier in the day topped the qualification round with a score of 581, to lead all three participating Indians into the final. Chinki was second with 580, while Manu was fourth with 576.

The trio did not exactly begin the final with a bang, but with every successive five-shot series, they were slowly but surely climbing up the ladder. By the time Singapore’s Teh Xiu Hong became the first to be eliminated after 20-shots, Chinki was leading with 14 hits, Manu was second with 13 while Rahi was in fourth place with 12 hits to her name.

Latvian Agate Rasmane, then briefly took the lead after the fifth series, but Chinki and Manu were back at 1-2 after the sixth, and by the time the seventh series ended it was all India at the top, but this time Rahi had displaced Manu in the second position.

The Latvian got eliminated in fourth place after the eighth series with Chinki leading with 27 hits, Rahi second with 25, and Manu third with 24 hits. In the ninth series, both Rahi and Manu had four hits, while Chinki had three, which meant that Manu had to settle for bronze.

In the final 10th series, Chinki had two hits while Rahi got three to take the match into a shoot-off, where Chinki emerged triumphantly.

There was the third final on the day with Slovenia’s world number seven Ziva Dvorska winning the Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions in a dominating final performance. She shot 457.1 to beat Nina Christen (ranked four) of Switzerland by a comfortable margin of two points. Poland’s Aneta Stankiewicz won bronze in the event.

Competition day seven on Thursday also has three finals lined up, with the team events in the Men’s and Women’s 3P as well as the Women’s 25m Pistol on schedule.