Manu Bhaker wins sixth medal in shooting WC

BHOPAL: Olympian shooter Manu Bhaker clinched the 25m pistol bronze medal at the ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup to take India’s medal tally to seven, including a gold, here on Saturday.

Bhaker, the multiple World Cup medal winner, had shot 290 in the precision round on Friday and entered the second day of the competition well placed for the rapid round.

In the rapid round on Saturday, she again shot three superb series of 98, 99 and 97 to aggregate 294 and advance to the ranking round placed third.

Another Indian, Esha Singh, who had shot 292 in precision, scored 289 in rapid to aggregate 581 and advance to the ranking round placed eighth.

In the ranking match 1, Bhaker qualified for the medal round as the third qualifier with an aggregate of 14 points, along with Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp (14 points), while Esha was eliminated.

Two shooters from ranking match – China’s Ziyue Du and Yaxuan Xiong -- qualified for the medal round with 12 points each, to make up the quartet vying for the top position.

In a tough medal match, Bhaker was no match for Do- reen (30 points) and Ziyue Du (29 points) who won the gold and silver, while the Indian could aggregate only 20 points to finish her campaign with a bronze.

This is the first medal in the ongoing World Cup for Bhaker, who had failed to impress in her favourite event, air pistol, on the opening day of the competition, finishing 16th with 568 points.

China continued its domination in the tournament, winning a sixth gold medal out of the eight decided so far.

The final competition day comes up on Sunday with two more finals left to be played -- the women’s 3P and the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol.

Aishwary finishes fourth Du Linshu won the first medal event of competition on day four, defeating Hungary’s Istvan Peni 16-10 in the men’s 3P gold medal clash.

Seasoned Swiss 3P specialist Jan Lochbihler won the bronze when he edged out home favourite Aishwary Tomar in the top eight ranking round.