Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar clinched a gold medal in the men’s 50 m rifle 3 positions event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2023 in Cairo on Wednesday.
This is Aishwary’s second shooting World Cup medal. The 22-year-old also clinched the gold at same event back in 2021 in New Delhi. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar defeated Alexander Schmirl 16-6 in the gold medal match to clinch India’s fourth gold medal at the Cairo meet for pistol and rifle shooters, as per Olympics.com.
Earlier, Aishwary had topped the qualification round with a total of 588 points, just ahead of his compatriot Akhil Sheoran, who finished with 587 points.
During the ranking round, he finished second behind Schmirl with a total of 406.4 points and made it to the gold medal match. Sheoran managed a seventh-place finish in the ranking round.
Earlier in the day, Indian women 25 m pistol shooters failed to capture a podium position. Rhythm Sangwan finished second during the qualification round with a total of 589 points, three points behind eventual silver medalist from Germany, Doreen Vennekamp.
Niveditha Nair Veloor and Abhidnya Ashok Patil were the other two Indians competing in the event but both were playing for ranking points only (RPO). Veloor earned a fifth-place finish in the qualifying round with 583 points while Patil was eighth with a point less.
Both would have qualified for the ranking round if they were not competing under RPO.
This medal by Aishwary keeps India at the top of the medal tally with a total of six medals, four gold and two bronze.
Earlier on Tuesday, India’s Tilottama Sen, all of 14, won bronze in the women’s 10m Air Rifle, the final medal event of competition day three of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol, currently underway in Cairo, Egypt.
Great Britain’s Seonaid Mcintosh, beat Switzerland’s Olympic Champion Nina Christen 16-8 in the decider to win gold.
Tilottama ended the top eight ranking round with a score of 262.0, missing out on the gold medal match by the narrowest possible margin of 0.1. Her medal was India’s fifth of the competition, a second bronze to add to three golds.
The Briton was in her element from the qualification round itself, topping the 95-strong field with a score of 634.0, after 60 shots. Tilottama, who also shot the second qualification relay, was second with 632.7. She was joined in the top eights by two other Indians- Ramita, yet another teenager, who shot 630.6 to take the sixth qualifying spot and the winner of the Air Rifle Mixed Team event, Narmada Nithin, who grabbed the eighth and final spot with an effort of 630.5.
While Narmada bowed out in seventh position, both Tilottama and Ramita fought bravely for a spot in the title round with the experienced Seonaid and women’s 3P Olympic Champion Nina, being matched shot for shot. The duo however fell short with Ramita finishing fourth and Tilottama settling for the third spot.