ISSF World Cup Lima: Suruchi edges past Manu to win gold; bronze for Saurabh

Indian shooters continued their brilliant performance in the World Cup Circuit by winning three medals in the 10m air pistol category on the opening day of ISSF World Cup Lima in Peru on Tuesday.

The rising star, Suruchi Singh, won her second consecutive World Cup title in the women's 10m air pistol category, edging past her senior compatriot and Paris Olympics medalist, Manu Bhaker.

Quality shooting from the youngster

The 18-year-old Suruchi now has a hundred percent strike rate in this category, winning two golds in as many appearances on the World Cup circuit. Meanwhile, Manu Bhaker opened her year's medal tally with a silver medal.

Suruchi showed consistent shooting and remained in the top four throughout the final to clinch the gold medal with a score of 243.6, whereas Manu came from behind with some high 10s to win silver, 242.3.

Earlier, Suruchi (582) and Manu Bhaker (578) finished the qualification round in second and fourth positions (excluding the RPOs), respectively, to reach the final.

On the other hand, Sainyam (571) missed out on a final for the second consecutive World Cup, finishing in 11th position among the non-RPO participants.

Bronze for Saurabh Chaudhary

The former world no.1 and Olympian Saurabh Chaudhary, who is making a comeback on the circuit, seems to be slowly finding his rhythm as he clinched a bronze medal in the men's 10m air pistol category.

This was his second world cup medal this year after a mixed team bronze medal last week in Argentina. Also, this was his first individual World Cup medal in three years, taking his overall World Cup tally to 14 medals.

He did not have a good start to the final, but slowly, he pushed himself into the top two positions.

However, after a couple of low 9s, he fell into the third position and settled for a bronze medal, having shot 219.1.

China's Hu Kai won the gold medal, his second on the world cup circuit this year, ahead of silver medalist Felipe Almeida Wu of Brazil.

Another Indian in the final, Varun Tomar, reached the final for the second consecutive week, but once again, he missed out on a medal by finishing in the fourth spot.