Teen sensation Manu Bhaker bags two shooting gold at Sydney ISSF Junior World Cup

Twitter@ISSF

Sydney: Pistol sensation Manu Bhaker continued her terrific run of form, again claiming the individual as well as team gold medal, while Gaurav Rana bagged a silver, as Indian shooters set the stage ablaze in the ISSF Junior World Cup on Saturday.

Coming off a double gold in her maiden senior World Cup in Mexico recently, the 16-year-old Manu clinched the individual gold medal after prevailing over Thailand's Kanyakorn Hirunphoem in a thrilling final of the women's 10m air pistol event.

India tasted success in the 10m air pistol men's event too with Rana winning a silver medal while Anmol Jain grabbed the bronze.

Manu shot 235.9 to finish top of the podium, while Hirunphoem had to contend with silver after scoring 234.9.

Chinese Kaiman Lu (214.2) completed the 10m air pistol podium by winning the bronze.

In the men's event, Rana finished with a score of 233.9, while Anmol totalled 215.1 behind the Chinese gold medallist Zhehao Wang's tally of a junior world record 242.5.

Another Indian shooter in Manu's event, Devanshi Rana, also qualified for the final and finished fourth with 195.3.

The trio of Manu, Rana and Mahima Agrawal also brought India on top of the team podium, while Xiao, Lu and Li Xue won silver for China. Thailand's Hirunphoem, Luxciga Srinitivoravong and Warunyapha Kaewngoen took the team bronze.

In an impressive display in the final of men's 10m air pistol event, India's Arjun Singh Cheema (152.7), Anhad Jawanda (134.4) and Abhishek Arya 114.5) finished 6th, 7th and 8th respectively.

India's Cheema, Rana and Anmol also pocketed the team gold, beating Liu, Wang and Tang - who claimed silver for China - and Jawanda, Arya and Adarsh Singh who won bronze for India.

After leading the match by as much as 2.2 points, Manu fired six consecutive shots outside the 10th ring, suddenly finding herself one point behind Hirunphoem with only two shots left to fire.

There, the 9.6-9.8 combo signed by the Indian was enough to overtake her rival, who instead sealed her fate with a disappointing 7.9.

Manu -- who won individual and mixed team gold in air pistol at this month's ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara -- finished with the score of 235.9 points, while Hirunphoem -- who previously wrote a new qualification world record with 576 points -- took silver with 234.9.

Rana and Wang remained within 2.3 points with six shots to go but the Chinese shooter's impressive showing thereafter with consecutive shots of 10.7 and 10.6 points put him in a  comfortable lead.

India were second in the standings with 11 medals, including five gold, behind China (13 podium finishes).