Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat unleashed her best performance to outclass a strong field and win the 25-metre sports pistol gold with a thumping margin in the shooting World Cup here on Monday.
The 30-year-old, who had won World Cup gold earlier in Changwon (2013) and Munich (2019), shot 39 in the final, one short of the world record, to beat Mathilde Lamolle of France by eight points for the gold. In fact, Rahi had sealed the gold even before the last series, as she had an unbeatable six-point lead.
“This give me the assurance that I am on the right track. I have to keep working on this,” said Rahi.
Shooting five rounds of perfect-5s in the first six series, Rahi intimidated a world class field, which saw the reigning Olympic champion Anna Korakaki being pushed to the fifth place.
In sports pistol final, only a score of 10.2 or more is taken as a hit for one point.
Seven other shooters put together could muster only two perfect-5s between them in 52 rounds!
Bhaker finishes seventh
Rahi had qualified with a majestic 591, following 296 in the rapid fire section. Manu Bhaker also shot 296 in rapid fire to qualify for the final with 588, but ended up seventh.
It was the second World Cup medal this season for Rahi, who had lost the shoot-off for the gold to Chinki Yadav in the World Cup in Delhi in March.
In the women’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Tejaswini Sawant (1168) and Anjum Moudgil (1162) returned modest scores.
Tejaswini looked set to make the final midway through the standing series, but dropped 14 points in the last two series and slipped to the 20th place.
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, the gold medallist in the Delhi World Chp, had made the men’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event on Sunday, but ended up sixth.
The results:
Men: 50m rifle 3-position: 1. Serhiy Kulish (Ukr) 460.0 (1182), 2. Sergey Kamenskiy (Rus) 458.6 (1179), 3. Patrik Jany (Svk) 447.6 (1179); 6. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 416.4 (1176); 17. Sanjeev Rajput 1173.
Women: 25m sports pistol: 1. Rahi Sarnobat 39 (591), 2. Mathilde Lamolle (Fra) 31 (584), 3. Vitalina Batsarashkina (Rus) 28 (584); 7. Manu Bhaker 11 (588).