Taking the baton from weightlifting, Indian shooters won three medals on the fourth day of the ongoing Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast. Manu Bhaker of India won Gold, while Heena Sidhu won silver in 10 M Air pistol (women) event at Australia. Ravi Kumar won Bronze in 10 M Air Rifle (men) event.
Manu Bhaker, the prodigious shooter, took up the sport just two years ago and now, two ISSF World Cup Gold medals and a Commonwealth Gold Medal is already under her kitty. At her debut Commonwealth Games, Bhaker fired a total of 240.9, a Commonwealth Games record. The 28-year-old Heena Sidhu claimed silver with a total effort of 234. Australia’s Elene Galiabovitch took bronze with a score of 214.9.
In the finals, Bhaker’s perseverance led her to 10, 10.3, 10.6 and 10.9 to put herself well ahead of Sidhu and Galiabovitch. Bhaker’s final shot earned a 10.4, which confirmed her Gold. Heena, on the other hand, hit 10.3 and 10.2 as the competition was eliminated one by one and then 10.1, 10.1, 9.1 and 9.7 to earn Silver medal.
Bhaker in her way to the Commonwealth Games final, set a qualifying CWG record score of 388/400, while Heena scored 379/400. She had earlier won nine gold medals at the National Shooting Championships and a month later, she set two other junior national records at the Khelo India School games. Heena had earlier won a gold in the team 10m air pistol event and silver in the individual 10m air pistol at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Ravi Kumar wins Bronze in 10 M Air Rifle Men:
Extending the medal tally of India from 9 medals to double figures, Shooter Ravi Kumar won bronze in the final of the men’s 10m air rifle at Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Australia.
Ravi, with a score of 626.8, entered the final after finishing second to Deepak Kumar who hit a record qualifying score of 627.2 in qualifying. Deepak Kumar couldn’t do anything further as it was the competition between Ravi, Australia’s Dane Samson and Abdullah Hel Baki of Bangladesh. The 29 year old Indian Shooter finished with shots of 10.4, 10.1, 9.3 and 10.2 with a total of 224.1. He had also won Bronze at the ISSF World Cup this year.