Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast: 15-year-old Anish Bhanala shoots gold, becomes India's youngest ever medal winner at CWG

Indian shooter Anish set a new record to win Gold in Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol competition at the 21st CWG in Australia's Gold Coast on Friday.

Gold Coast: Indian shooter Anish Bhanala, aged 15, created history on Friday by becoming the country's youngest ever gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games. The teenager from Haryana achieved the feat when he stormed his way into the Gold medal with a Games record in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event at the Belmont Shooting Centre.

Anish shot down the CWG record in the final with a score of 30 including four series of 5 each. The youngest in the field, he showed nerves of steel and led the more experienced shooters through the event to emerge deserving champion.

Australia's Sergei Evglevski claimed the Silver with 28, while the Bronze medal went to Sam Gowin (17) of England. India's other entrant in the event, Neeraj Kumar (13) was the second shooter to be eliminated in the finals after a shoot-off.

By winning the Gold, Anish bettered team-mate Manu Bhaker, who had become the youngest Indian Commonwealth Games gold medallist earlier this week when she emerged champion in the 10m air rifle finals.

In the Qualifications, Anish scored 580 to finish top of the tally while Neeraj was second best with 579.

Anish scored 286 in stage 1 and 294 in stage 2 qualifying, while Neeraj had 291 in stage 1 and 288 in stage 2.

Earlier, Two Indian shooters - Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil – also bagged a Gold and Silver respectively in women's 50m Rifle 3 final.

Born in Kasandi village in Gohana Tehsil, Haryana's Sonipat, Anish competes in the 25-meter rapid fire pistol, 25-meter pistol, and 25-meter standard pistol events. Anish has been a part of the Indian Shooting Team since 2017.

He had earlier represented India at ISSF Junior World Championship 2017 (Suhl, Germany), Commonwealth Shooting Championships 2017 (Brisbane), ISSF World Cup 2018 (Guadalajara) and ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 (Sydney, Australia).

The country's promising shooter bagged won two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze for India at the ISSF Junior World Championship in 2017. In 2017 Commonwealth Shooting Championships, Anish clinched a Silver in 25m Rapid Fire Men event.

He repeated his good show by winning one individual Gold and one team Silver in 25m Rapid Fire Junior Men at the ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 in Sydney.

Despite having no family background in sport, Anish is passionate about shooting as a sport. His father had once borrowed a pistol for him so that he can participate in a shooting competition at his school in Karnal.

He is also a recipient of Mahindra Scorpio TOISA 2018 award for 'Emerging Player Of The Year'.