16-Year-Old Saurabh Chaudhary Clinches Gold at ISSF World Cup
Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary bags gold with a world record score of 245 in the 10m Air Pistol event!
- Saurabh Chaudhary won a gold with a record score at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi
- With a total of 245 points in the final, he also secured a Tokyo Olympics quota for India
- This was Saurabh’s maiden senior World Cup appearance
At 16, Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary clinched a gold in the 10m Air Pistol event with a world record score at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi on Sunday, 24 February.
In his maiden senior World Cup appearance, he also secured an Olympic quota for India in the event for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
With a total of 245 in the final, he broke the previous world record of 243.6 held by Ukraine’s Oleh Omelchuk from the Munich World Cup last year. This is, however, still 0.5 shy of his personal best of 245.5, set by the teen sensation at the 2018 Junior World Championships in Changwon.
Saurabh is only third Indian shooter after Jitu Rai and Shahzar Rizvi to win a gold in the men’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup.
Saurabh Maintains Lead From Word Go
Right from his first five shots that saw him in the joint lead with a total of 51.2, Chaudhary maintained his top position throughout the event.
Competing against shooters much older than him, the Haryana shooter kept his calm throughout, and after 10 shots, he was still leading with a score of 102.2.
As the final progressed and the event was down to four shooters, Saurabh had a massive five-point lead over the second-place Serbian shooter Damir Mikec.
Eventually, it was down to those two shooters – one 16-years-old, and the other 34 – for the gold and the Olympic quota place. And such was Saurabh's dominance in the eight-men final that he finished the event 5.7 points ahead of the silver medallist; the gold assured even before his final shot.
Just last year, Chaudhary had created an Asian Games record on his way to the gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol event, and followed it up with another gold at the Youth Olympic Games in October.
Coached by Jaspal Rana, he started his shooting career only four years back. He won the gold in the Junior World Shooting Championships last summer with a world record score there as well.
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