Junior World Cup: Manu Bhaker wins air pistol gold

For someone who has already won two gold medals in World Cups, including one among the women in Guadalajara earlier this season, the third gold was no surprise.

Manu Bhaker won the air pistol gold in the Junior World Cup in Germany, flanked by the Chinese and the mascot, on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manu Bhaker continued to assert her class as she beat the Chinese and Koreans by a big margin to win the women’s air pistol gold in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany on Wednesday.

For someone who has already won two gold medals in World Cups, including one among the women in Guadalajara earlier this season, the third gold was no surprise.

But, coming after the disappointment of the sports pistol final, when she lost the race early owing to deduction of two points for reporting late, this was a welcome addition to the gold collection for the 16-year-old.

After qualifying in the second place with 573 points, Manu overcame a slight deficit after the first five shots, to overwhelm Lu Kaiman of China by 5.6 points to win the gold.

The Chinese qualification topper Li Xue was forced to settle for the bronze.

There was not much support for Manu from Mahima Turhi Agrawal and Devanshi Rana, and thus the team could only fetch the bronze.

For another Commonwealth Games gold medallist, young Anish Bhanwala clinched the bronze in junior men’s rapid fire pistol, after he missed a better medal by just one point.

India continued to sit on top of the medals table with nine gold, one silver and seven bronze medals. China, who was trying to catch up ended with six gold, seven silver and four bronze medals.

In junior women’s skeet, Ganemat Sekhon was on 64 after three rounds, four points behind the leader.

The results: Junior men: 25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Matej Rampula (Cze) 30 (577); 2. Zhang Juening (Chn) 28 (576); 3. Anish Bhanwala 24 (575); 8. Adarsh Singh 573; 20. Harshawardhan Yadav 560; 29. Anhad Jawanda 563 Team: 1. China 1732; 2. Ukraine 1712; 3. Germany 1710; 5. India 1701. Junior women: 10m air pistol: 1. Manu Bhaker 242.5(WRJ) 573; 2. Lu Kaiman (Chn) 236.9 (569); 3. Li Xue (Chn) 216.2 (575); 16. Neha 565; 20. Esha Singh 565; 28. Mahima Turhi Agrawal 563; 41. Devanshi Rana 558); 52. Devanshi Dhama 556. Team: 1. China 1710 (WRJ); 2. Italy 1701; 3. India 1694; 7. India-B 1686. Mixed trap: 1. Italy (Teo Petroni, Erica Sessa) 40 (WRJ) 138 (WRJ); 2. Australia (Nathan Steven Argiro, Alexis Elsa Preston) 39 (131); 3. Bulgaria (Ivan Georgiev, Selin Ali) 30; 6. India (Vivaan Kapoor, Soumya Gupta) 18; 20. India-B (Manisha Keer, Manavaditya Rathore) 116.