India clinch gold in Women’s 25M Pistol team event at Cairo Shooting World Cup:

New Delhi: In a thrilling gold medal match-up in the Women’s 25M Pistol team competition on the penultimate day of the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, India registered a 17-13 victory over Singapore to claim their third gold of the tournament.

Rahi Sarnobat, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan made it to the title round on Saturday after topping the second qualification stage along with the Singaporean trio of Xiu Hong, Shun Xie and Ling Chiao Nicole Tan.

This was Esh’s second gold and third medal of the World Cup as well, as she had won the Women’s 10M Air Pistol team event to add to the silver she won in the Women’s 10M Air Pistol individual event.

India further added to their medal count on the day, after Shriyanka Sadangi and Akhil Sheoran beat Austria’s Rebecca Koeck and Gernot Rumpler 16-10 in the bronze medal match of the 50M Rifle 3-Positions (3P) Mixed Team



competition.

When the Indian women began their gold medal match with six hits out of 15 to Singapore’s four to take a 2-0 lead, very few expected the drama that was going to unfold. At the end of the third series of five shots each for every member, the scores were tied at 3-3 and coach Samaresh Jung called for a time-out as Esha had registered back-to-back blanks.

That seemed to have settled nerves and with the experienced Rahi coming into her own and registering five hits in the fifth series, India led again with the score reading 7-3. However, Singapore came back strongly to win the next three series and take the lead for the first time in the match. India came back emphatically to win the ninth series 12-7, to level the match again at 9-9.

The final two medals of the Cairo World Cup will be decided on Monday in Team competitions and India, currently placed second on the medal tally, will surely aim for the top spot.