ISSF World Cup: Saurabh Chaudhary wins gold, Esha Singh wins silver

Saurabh Chaudhary of India beat Michael Schwald of Germany 16-6 in the gold medal match to win India's first medal at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Cairo. Esha Singh capped off a great day for India by winning silver in the Women's 10m Air Pistol final later in the day.

The bronze in the Men's 10m Air Pistol event was won by Artem Chernousov of Russia, which country had their flag removed from the scoreboard because of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Saurabh, India's 19-year-old shooting prodigy, was third in the men's 10m air pistol qualification stage with a total of 584 points, making it through to the first semifinal as one of the top 8 shooters.

In the semifinal, he topped the groups with a score of 38, thus making it through to the medal match, which was contested by the last four shooters.

In the medal match, he got off to a poor start, being the fourth among four shooters after six of 15 rounds. However, he roared back into the joint lead after nine rounds. He made it through to the gold medal match in sole lead at the end of 10 rounds.

The men's 10m air rifle field at the World Cup was a weak one with China pulling out and none of the Tokyo 2020 medallists featuring in Cairo.

No Indian shooter had been able to qualify for the semifinals of any event at this ongoing World Cup before Tuesday.

This was Saurabh's 9th World Cup gold medal overall and his third individual. He had 5 mixed team, 1 men's team and 2 individual gold medals from previous World Cups.

Esha Singh, 17, finished ahead of Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Antoaneta Kostadinova on way to a medal on her World Cup debut.

Over 500 athletes from 60 nations are taking part in the Cairo World Cup which has 20 medal sets on offer.