Olympian Rahi Sarnobat won the gold in 25-metre sports pistol, beating a strong field that included the London Games gold medallist and the “2012 shooter of the year”, Kim Jangmi of Korea, in the shooting World Cup in Changwon on Friday.
The 22-year-old Rahi beat Kim Kyeongae of Korea 8-6 in the final. She had pipped Chinese Zhang Jingjing in the semifinals, on the count-back after being tied on 15. The Korean had topped the semifinals with a score of 16, in the ‘hit and miss’ format in which each shot fetches one or zero.
It was only the third World Cup final for the girl from Kolhapur, who had secured a bronze medal with a brilliant fare in the final of the Fort Benning World Cup in 2011, that had incidentally fetched her an Olympic quota place.
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Quite interestingly, the two Koreans whom Rahi beat for the gold, had won the gold and silver in last year’s Asian championship in Doha, when she herself had placed 16th with a score of 574. She was marginally better in placing 10th in the Asian Games in Guangzhou with a score of 577.
In the World Cup in Fort Benning Rahi had shot up from nowhere to the bronze with a total of 207.7 in the final, in which all her 20 shots were 10 or more. Her other final was in the World Cup in Sydney in 2010, where she was seventh.
The rest of the Indian shooters failed to make an impact, as they grappled with the decimal scoring and new format.
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The results:Women:25m sports pistol: 1. Rahi Sarnobat 8 (15) 585; 2. Kim Kyeongae (Kor) 6 (16) 586; 3. Kim Jangmi (Kor) 8 (13) 582; 4. Zhang Jingjing (Chn) 6 (15) (585); 21. Anisa Sayyed 572; 26. Sushma Singh 570. MQS: Annu Raj Singh 571; Shreya Gawande 544.
Air rifle : 1. Wu Liuxi (Chn) 206.2 (418.1); 2. Silvia Rachl (Ger) 206.0 (417.0); 3. Ivana Maksimovic (Srb) 185.6 (415.2); 21. Pooja Ghatkar 410.3; 25. Susan Elizabeth Koshy 409.4; 30. Apurvi Chandela 407.8. MQS: Ayonika Paul 412.5.