Olympian Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar won gold in the men’s individual 50m rifle 3 positions event as India continued its dominance in the ISSF Shooting World Cup here on Wednesday. India has so far won six medals including four gold in this competition and has consolidated its position at the top of the medals tally. The 22-year-old Tomar, who also won a gold medal at the Changwon World Cup last year, registered a comfortable 16-2 win over Alexander Schmirl of Austria in the final.
Tomar shot 400 6.4 to finish second in the ranking round, while Shmirel finished first with 407.9. Earlier, the Indian shooter had shot 588 to finish first in the qualifying round. Akhil Sheoran, another Indian competing in the event, finished second in the qualification with a score of 587. “I haven’t been able to do well twice before on this shooting range, so this time I was determined to win a medal,” Tomar said after his event.
Tomar shot 20 each in the kneeling, prone and standing positions in the qualification round with a score of 588 to make it to the ranking round along with partner Sharon. Both these Indian players made slow starts in the ranking rounds. At one point Tomar was running sixth and Sharon was running eighth. After that, however, he improved his game. Sharon was second after 10 shots from the prone position, while Tomar was fifth.
But then there was a change and Sheron dropped first to fifth and later to seventh place and was out of medal contention. Tomar, however, secured the second position. The gold medal match between Tomar and Shmirel saw a close contest early on. At one point the score was tied at 4-4 and then at 6-6. The Indian player, however, showed excellent play after that and won the gold medal.
Earlier, in the women’s 25m pistol event, India’s Rhythm Sangwan made it to the ranking round by scoring 589 in the qualification round. However, she finished fourth in the ranking round. Veronika Major of Hungary won the gold medal of this event. Other Indian players competing in the event were Manu Bhaker and Isha Singh with scores of 571 and 570 to finish 32nd and 34th respectively.
