India sweep mixed team titles to conclude best ever ISSF World Cup performance
India produced their best ever show at the ISSF World Cup after sweeping both the mixed team titles on Thursday for a total tally of five gold medals in Munich, Germany.
India topped the medals tally with five gold and a silver, while second-placed China bagged nine medals -- two gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
India gold medallists included Apurvi Chandela (10m Air Rifle Women), Rahi Sarnobat (25m Pistol Women) and Saurabh Chaudhary (10m Air Pistol Men), besides the Mixed Team titles, won on the last day.
The pair of Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar first won the 10m Air Rifle mixed team gold, even as the teenage pair of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary backed them up with the 10m Air Pistol mixed team title, rounding off a dominating show by the Indian squad at the year's third International Shooting Sport Federation world cup stage.
In fact, in the Mixed Air Rifle, it was an all India gold medal match and Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar landed the country its lone silver, going down to their compatriots 2-16.
Manu and Saurabh, in the Air Pistol finals, found it a bit tough against the experienced Ukranian pair of Olena Kostevych and Oleh Omelchuk but they won 17-9 in the end.
Anjum and Divyansh shot 629.1 in round one of their relay to qualify as the fourth team, 0.1 points ahead of Apurvi and Deepak, who made it through as fifth having finished second in their individual relay earlier.
The gold medallists again bettered their countrymates in round two, shooting a combined 631.9 to top the eight-team standings. Apurvi and Deepak followed them with an effort of 630.2, setting up an all India gold medal match-up.
Meanwhile, the Belarussian pair of Maria Martynova and Ilia Charheika won a thrilling bronze medal match against the Austrian pair of Olivia Hofmann and Alexander Schmirl 16-14. The Belarussians were down 0-10 at one stage before staging a remarkable comeback.
In the gold medal match, Anjum and Divyansh were dominant with Apurvi and Deepak winning just the first two-shot series.
In the Air Pistol competition, Manu and Saurabh also made their intentions clear from round one itself, topping the 76-team field with a score of 586 and then doing an encore in round two with an even better 591.
World record holder Saurabh shot a 100 in his last series.
In the gold medal match, against a team, which had a former Olympic champion in Olena, Manu and Saurabh kept ahead of the game from the onset, maintaining a four-point gap throughout.
There was a moment when the Ukranians picked up three out six points for a semblance of a fight back, but solid shooting by the young Indian pair, meant they had no chance.
The event format consisted of a first qualification round of three series of 20-shots each with each team member allocated 10-shots per series. The top eight teams would then move to a second qualification round and have another round in the same format.
The top two teams would then qualify for the gold medal match while the third and fourth best teams would compete for the bronze medal.
In the match-ups, each member would get a single shot and the higher aggregate score was allotted two points. This series would continue and the first to 16-points was declared the winner.
