Sarabjot Singh won a gold medal in men’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Munich on Thursday. The Indian shooter finished with 242.7 points, narrowly edging Shuaihang Bu of China who took the silver with 242.5 points. Robin Walter of Germany grabbed the bronze medal with 220.0 points.
This is India’s first medal at the ISSF World Cup in Munich and comes as a massive morale booster ahead of the Paris Olympics in July.
Sarabjot had qualified for the finals with 588 points to take the top spot. In the process he became the third Indian to make the medal rounds at the World Cup, after Ramita and Esha Singh had finished sixth in earlier event finals in Air Rifle and Air Pistol.
Arjun Cheema and Varun Tomar had failed to qualify for the finals after shooting 582 to finish 10th and 11th respectively.
The finals featured reigning world champion Bowen Zhang and four-time Olympian Yusuf Dikec besides Sarabjot, Bu and Walter.
Sarabjot delivered a fine pillar-to-post victory for his second individual ISSF World Cup medal, after his breakthrough gold last year in Bhopal.
The young Indian was the strongest off the blocks shooting three high 10s off his first five single shots to take an early lead.
His consistent shooting continued and he never gave up the lead until Walter caught up with him at the end of the 14th single shot.
A clutch 10.8 for his 15th looked to have settled the final as Walter wilted with an 8.6. After Zhang bowed out in fifth, Walter upset Dikec for the bronze.
Going into the final two shots, 1.4 separated Sarabjot from Bu, who was till then enjoying the chase as the pressure told on Sarabjot.
In the end, Sarabjot, who had topped the selection trials for the Paris Olympics, did well to hold on for a morale-boosting win.
Sarabjot had won a bronze in 10m air pistol event at the Asian Shooting Championships 2023 in Changwon and had secured the first pistol quota for India in the Paris Olympics.
At the Asian Games last year, Sarabjot won the gold medal with the men’s 10m air pistol team and silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
(with inputs from PTI)
