ISSF Junior World Cup: Anish Bhanwala bags gold in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

NEW DELHI: National Champion in shooting Anish Bhanwala on Monday bagged a gold medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/ Pistol/ Shotgun in Australia's Sydney. Anish defeated China's Zhipeng Cheng with 29-27 in the 40-shot final.

The National Champion topped the qualification round before that by quite a distance; shooting 585 while second placed qualifier Jueming Zhang of China managed 579, a good six points behind.

In the final, Anish and Zhipeng were fastest of the blocks shooting four out of five after the first five-shot series and the Haryana teenager went ahead 9-8 after the second series itself, maintaining a gap of two over Zhipeng throughout to clinch the his first Junior World Cup Gold.

He also teamed up with Anhad Jawanda and Adarsh Singh to win the Team Silver medal in the event with a combined score of 1714, behind China who shot 1733.

Anhad and another Indian Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, also reached the individual final, finishing fourth and sixth eventually.

In January, Anish had broken the world record in the event with a score of 37 in the National Trials.

With two more days of competition and five more finals to go, India are now placed second on the medals tally with six Gold, three Silver and six Bronze medals, just below table toppers China, who have seven Gold, four Silver and six Bronze medals.

(With inputs from ANI)