ISSF World Cup: Anish Bhanwala wins bronze in 25m rapid-fire pistol; gives India medal after 12 years

Anish Bhanwala won bronze in the 25m men's rapid-fire pistol event at the ISSF World Cup 2023 in Cairo, Egypt. With this medal, India finishes their campaign at the tournament with seven medals and table-toppers in the medals standings.

It is an event where India has an Olympic medal but has hardly won anything on the international stage. In-fact the Olympic medal and the two previous world cup stage medals were all won by one man, Vijay Kumar. Anish Bhanwala broke that jinx finally after 12-years.

Bhanwala finished the ranking match with a total of 21, finishing behind Italy's Massimo Spinella (32) and France's Clement Bessaguet (30).

Dedicating the medal to his personal coach Harpreet Singh who according to Anish, “also reached many finals for India but could not win a medal,” the youngster admitted that it was a “dream come true”. He said after the medal match, “I had come fifth in two finals before and was determined today to win my first world cup medal.”

The ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol bandwagon now moves to Bhopal, India, where the year’s third world cup stage is scheduled from March 20-27, 2023.

Other medal winners:

• Rudrankksh Patil (Men's 10m Air Rifle- Gold)
• Rudrankksh Patil and Narmada Raju (Mixed Team 10m Air Rifle- Gold)
• Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions- Gold)
• Rhythm Sangwan and Varun Tomar (Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol- Gold)
• Varun Tomar (Men's 10m Air Pistol- Bronze)
• Tilottama Sen (Women's 10m Air Rifle- Bronze)