What’s the story?
The Indian shooting team finished second at the ISSF Junior World Championship held in Suhl, Germany with three golds, two silvers and three bronze medals to their name. The final day of the competition was especially fruitful for India as they garnered a gold and a silver in the team and individual sections of the 25m Pistol Junior Mens’ event and later capped off the event with a bronze in the 25m Pistol Junior Womens’ event to go up to second place.
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The ISSF Junior World Championship saw about 500 shooters participate from 65 different countries ended with China topping the table in the rifle/pistol tournament with 19 medals, eight of which were gold.
In case you didn’t know...
This is the fourth consecutive year for Suhl as the host of the Junior International Shooting Sports competition, having previously hosted the ISSF Junior Cup in 2014 and 2015, and the ISSF Junior World Cup in 2016. In 2016, the city in Thuringia welcomed the ISSF World Championship Running Target competition as well.
The heart of the matter
Anish Bhanwala won India’s first gold medal at the ISSF Junior World Championship in the 25m Standard Pistol category, creating a junior world record score of 576 bettering the previous record of Denis Koulakov, who shot a score of 574 in a competition held in Finland in 2002.
Anish also won an individual silver medal in the event scoring 589 but finished behind Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov, who shot a world record-equalling score of 590. Bhanwala went on to win his second gold when he teamed up with Anhad Jawand and Shivam Shukla in the 25m pistol team event. The team’s combined total of 1733 was well ahead of the Korean team who won the silver medal while China got the bronze.
Yashaswini Singh Deswal won gold in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol at the end of day two. Yashaswini topped the qualifying rounds by being two points clear of the second placed qualifier. She then overcame a slow start in the final round by ending with a World record equalling finals score of 235.9. Her performance in the final was dominant with the second placed Korean Woori Kim’s only managing a tally of 231.8.
In the 25m pistol junior women's event, India’s Muskan shot a total of 578 to qualify for the eight-woman final in sixth position. In the final, she finished with a score of 24 out of 40 shots that saw her miss out on a medal in fourth place.
However, Muskan combined with Chinki Yadav and Gauri Sheoran to win the bronze medal in the team event with a combined total of 1711 points. China, with 1734, won the gold, while Thailand won the silver.
What’s next?
The Test events of the tournament will be played out on Wednesday in the mixed format in 10m air rifle and air pistol disciplines.
The Indian junior contingent will also take part in the ISSF Junior World Cup Shotgun in Italy from 15-22 August and the senior Indian shooting team will take part in the ISSF World Championship Shotgun in Moscow, Russia from 30 Aug–11 Sept.
Authors take
It is brilliant to see youngsters perform so well and the junior team will look to build on this 2nd position finish with more stellar performances in the future for India.
