Agencies | Cairo
Young Indian shooter Samrat Rana came up with breathtaking show of marksmanship to clinch the men’s 10m air pistol gold and make history at the prestigious ISSF World Championships on Monday.
The 20-year-old Samrat became the first Indian pistol shooter in an Olympic discipline to become world champion and, in the process, also helped India win the team gold in the event.
With three gold, three silver and as many bronze, India jumped from fifth spot to third as China led the table with six gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
Samrat, who hails from Karnal, shot an amazing 243.7 in the final to beat back the challenge of China’s Hu Kai, who took the silver in a nerve-wracking medal round with a score of 243.3.
India’s Varun Tomar, who comes from a small village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh and is a cousin of Olympian pistol ace Saurabh Chaudhary, shot 221.7 to take the bronze in a high-intensity final, which saw the lead changing hands among the three shooters multiple times.
However, it was Samrat who stuck to basics and never flinched even once as he converted his junior success into triumph at the senior level at the same venue where he had won two gold medals — junior air pistol team and junior mixed team — at the the 2022 World Championships.
This is also the first time two Indian shooters won medals in the same event at the World Championships.
Coached by his father since 2018, Samrat had been knocking at the doorsteps of success at the senior level for the last one year. A student of DAV College, Karnal, Samrat clinched the World University gold last year and recently missed qualifying for the ISSF World Cup final in Ningbo, China by the thinnest of margins. But on Monday, he left no room for any doubt as he showed his intentions in the qualification round with a excellent 586, which placed him at the top of the leaderboard.
Varun, too, was in the ‘zone’ as he came up with an identical score but finished second behind
Samrat.
