Indian pistol shooter Rhythm Sangwan won the bronze medal in women’s 10m air pistol final at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The ace shooter stood third behind gold medal winner Anna Korakaki of Greece and silver medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine.
Rhythm’s teammatesSarabjot Singh and Esha Singh missed out on medals despite qualifying for the finals in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol respectively, however, Rhythm’s efforts won India a coveted medal.
As ISSF reverted to the Tokyo Olympics format, Rhythm scored 581 and Esha 579 in the 60-shot qualification stage. With this they both qualified for the eight-woman 24-shot finals.
Anna was in the lead After 10 shotswith Olena behind her. Rhythm and Esha were in fifth and sixth positions by then.
Esha finished in the sixth spot at the end of the 20th shot. However, Rhythm moved up to the third spot and was one point behind second-placed Olena and 2.7 behind Anna.
Rhythm ended the finals one point behind Ukranian with 219.1 on the board. Having established a healthy lead, Anna closed out comfortably for gold with 241.3 while Olena shot 240.6 for silver.
This is Rhythm’s maiden individual senior medal at an Olympic discipline event, making this victory all the more special.
