ISSF World Cup 2019: Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary Win Gold In 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Event

Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary, the pair of young Indian shooters, won a gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Beijing, China, on Thursday. The Indian pair defeated Jiang Ranxin and Pang Wei of China by a comprehensive margin of 16-6 in the gold medal battle. This is the second consecutive gold for Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary at the ISSF World Cup as they had clinched a gold in the same category in the New Delhi edition of the shooting World Cup in February this year.

This is India's second gold at the World Cup as Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar bagged a gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event earlier in the day.

Moudgil and Panwar registered a 17-15 win over Chinese pair of Liu Ruxuan and Yang Haoran.

In the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team event, Bhaker and Saurabh had finished fifth with 482 points in qualification. However, they excelled in the final that happened in a new format, in which top two teams locked horns for the gold medal.

In February, Bhaker and Chaudhary had clinched a gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event on the closing day of the ISSF World Cup at the Dr Karni Shooting Range in New Delhi.

The pair had registered a total score of 483.5 to finish on the top in the mixed team event. 

Such was the Indian duo's dominance through the final that the difference between gold and silver medallist at the end was a hopping at the end was 5.8.

Having entered the final after equalling the qualification world record, Saurabh and Manu continued in the same vein and once they moved to the top spot, there was no looking back as they consistently shot high and mid 10.

In the same edition, 16-year-old shooter Saurabh Chaudhary had won a gold medal in men's 10m Air Pistol event.

Saurabh, who won a gold at the Youth Olympics last year, defeated Serbia's Damir Mikec to claim the gold with a world record score of 245. With the glory, he also assured himself an Olympic quota for Tokyo 2020.