India’s Anish Bhanwala and Neeraj Kumar won a silver and bronze respectively in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Gold Coast. The two medals added to India’s medals from rifle and pistol events, bring the total up to 16, including four gold. India has also won a gold and silver in shotgun events.
India had three representatives in the six-man rapid fire pistol final, with Olympian Gurpreet Singh qualifying along with Anish and Neeraj. Anish topped the qualification with a score of 577, while Neeraj came in second with 575 and Gurpreet in fifth place with a score of 566.
Gurpreet was first to be eliminated in the final, but Anish and Neeraj hung on for the silver and bronze after Australian Sergei Evglevski made the gold medal beyond reach, pulling away from the field after the fourth five-shot series.
Neeraj won a fourth-place elimination shoot-off over England’s Sam Gowin to assure himself of a medal. Anish beat him 21-19 after the sixth series. Sergei ended with a score of 28 out of 40 and took home gold, while Anish was two points behind with 26.
In the women’s rifle 3 positions, Gaayathri finished fourth, shooting 429.7, and was the best placed among the three Indian finalists. Aditi Singh finished sixth while Tejaswini Sawant, the third Indian in the eight-woman final, finished seventh. India’s Shreyasi Singh made it to her second final of the championships but fell short of her second medal by finishing sixth. She shot 11 in the final, after winning a shoot-off with Seema Tomar during qualification.
Australia’s Laetisha Scanlan bagged gold in the event, while Scotland’s Sharon Niven won silver and Natalie Rooney of New Zealand took away the bronze.
