ISSF WC: Bhaker signs off with 25m pistol bronze

IMAGE: Germany’s Doreen Veenekamp claimed gold, China’s Du Ziyue won silver and India’s Manu Bhaker bagged bronze in the women’s 25m Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Bhopal on Saturday. Photograph: NRAI/Twitter

Olympian shooter Manu Bhaker clinched the 25m pistol bronze medal in the ISSF Pistol/Rifle World Cup to take India’s medal tally to seven, including  a gold, in Bhopal on Saturday.

Bhaker, the multiple World Cup medal winner, had shot 290 in the precision round on Friday and entered day 2 of competition well placed for the rapid round.

In the rapid round on Saturday, she again shot three superb series of 98, 99 and 97 to aggregate 294 and advance to the ranking round placed third.

Another Indian, Esha Singh, who had shot 292 in precision, scored 289 in rapid to aggregate 581 and advance to the ranking round placed eighth.

In the ranking match 1, Bhaker qualified for the medal round as the third qualifier with an aggregate for 14 points, along with Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp (14 points), while Esha was eliminated.

Two shooters from ranking match 2 — China’s Ziyue Du and Yaxuan Xiong — qualified for the medal round with 12 points each, to make up the quartet vying for the top position.

In a tough medal match, Bhaker was no match for Doreen (30 points) and Ziyue Du (29 points) who won the gold and silver, while the Indian could aggregate only 20 points to finish her campaign with a bronze.

This is the first medal in the ongoing World Cup for Bhaker, who had failed to impress in her favourite event, air pistol, on the opening day of the competition, finishing 16th with 568 points.