The final day of India campaign at the ISSF World Championship called for a finish with a flourish, and the 50m pistol shooters helped achieve the objective by bagging gold and three bronze for India biggest haul in a single day at Baku, Azerbaijan.
The trio of Tiyana (533), Sakshi Anil Suryavanshi (531) and Kirandeep Kaur (509) combined for a score of 1573, which was good enough to hand India the gold in women’s 50m pistol team.
The silver went to China (1567) and bronze to Mongolia (1566).
The show of the unsung Indian girls was proof that reputation means little when determination is the driving force.
In the individual category, Tiyana added to her reputation with a bronze courtesy the 533. The 16-year-old has been making waves on the big stage with junior silver and bronze medals at the 2023 Changwon and 2022 Cairo World Championship.
Sakshi finished fifth while Kirandeep was placed 11th.
The gold was won by 2021 Tokyo Olympian Sylvia Steiner (540) of Austria, adding to her bronze in 25m standard pistol on Wednesday. The silver went to Mongolia Bayartsetseg Tumurchudur (534), a silver medallist at the 2022 Cairo World Championship.
There was more in store when the men swung into action, adding to India medal tally. Ravinder Singh (556), Kamaljeet (547) and Jagannath Vikram Shinde (543) combined to total 1646 for the bronze in 50m pistol team. Like their women counterparts, the men too punched above their weight to land the bronze.
China (1655) won gold while Korea (1654) took the silver.
At 26, Ravinder is still a work in progress but Friday had nothing to do with the past and his score was good enough for the individual bronze as well. Kamaljeet finished 11th and Jagannath 18th.
The gold went to China Yu Xie (558), and it was his first medal in a major ISSF competition. He was followed by Latvia Lauris Strautmanis (557), who too stepped up on the world stage with this medal.
India made it a profitable outing at Baku by earning four Olympic quota spots — Rajeshwari Kumari (women trap), Sift Kaur Samra (women 50m rifle three positions), Akhil Sheoran (men’s 50m rifle three positions) and Mehuli Ghosh (women’s 10m air rifle).
Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men trap), Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (men 10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale (men 50m rifle three positions) are the other shooters who secured Paris Olympic quota places at last year ISSF World Championship.
Though competitions run till August 31, India signed off on the second spot on the medals tally with 6 gold and 8 bronze. China leads with 15 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze while USA were pushed to third with 5 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.