ISSF World Cup: Manu, Saurabh clinch 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team gold; India finish with 3 gold, 1 Olympic quota

NEW DELHI: India finished the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range on a rousing note, as the star 16-year-old duo of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary clinched the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team gold with a massive lead of 5.7 points on Wednesday.
It took India's medals tally to three gold medals, but the Olympic quota count from the event stayed at just one -- clinched by Chaudhary in the Men's 10m Air Pistol event, when he won the first of his two gold medals in the past week.
The hosts finished joint first on the medals tally with Hungary, who also went home with three gold.
India's first gold came on the first day of the competition, when Apurvi Chandela topped the podium in the women's 10m Air Rifle event. She and Anjum Moudgil had already bagged the Olympic quota for India in the event last year.
China finished third on the medals tally but won the most medals, 10, by any of the 60 nations who participated in this World Cup. The Chinese shooters not only won 1 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals but also claimed five quota places for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The remaining eight quotas went to Hungary (2), Switzerland (1), Austria (1), Korea (1), Chinese Taipei (1), Serbia (1) and Italy (1).
On Wednesday, Bhaker and Saurabh shot a combined score of 483.4 in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team final after topping the qualification by equaling the senior qualification world record of 778. It was also a new qualification world record in junior category. India's other team of Abhishek Verma and Heena Sidhu ended up ninth in qualification with a combined score of 770.
China won silver (477.7) and the Korean team settled for bronze (418.7) after losing in the shootoff for the third place.
Chaudhary scored a disastrous 8.9 twice in the final but had the best reply in store when he was quizzed after the match how he dealt with it.
"Bhool gaya (I forgot it)," the champion teenager put it simply.
For Bhaker, the Mixed Team gold was a kind of relief as she had missed reaching the final of women's 10m Air Pistol and finished fifth in women's 25m Pistol.
"Not relief, but yes satisfaction," said Bhaker, the 2018 Commowealth Games gold medallist, who has her class 12th board exams coming up.
"Actually in the earlier events (in this World Cup), I couldn't do well despite my best efforts. Now I have won a medal, so it builds hope that I can do better next time. So that's why satisfaction," she explained.
The duo, both of who won gold at the Youth Olympic Games last year, was asked what do they learn from each other and how are they different from each other at the firing point.
"Saurabh's mindset is a lot different than me in shooting," Bhaker said. "Actually, he never loses hope. He is always positive, always says 'hum kar sakte hain, karenge (we can do it, we will do it). He doesn't speak much otherwise; in fact, he speaks very less."
Chaudhary replied in his usual rapid-fire mode.
"She (Bhaker) is a good shooter. I get to learn a lot from her," said the Asian Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist.
However, it was not a good day for the Indian rifle shooters.
The two Indian teams of Ravi Kumar and Anjum Moudgil as well as Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar failed to make the cut for the final in the Men's 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event, in which China won gold with a world record score of 503.6, Romania clinched silver and Korea bronze.