Munich, June 13: The sensational Suruchi Singh dominated a quality field to win her third straight individual ISSF World Cup gold medal in a thrilling women’s 10m air pistol final here on Friday, reaffirming her position as Indian shooting’s latest golden girl.
The 19-year-old shot 241.9 in the eight-woman final to leave France’s Paris Olympic silver medallist Camille Jedrzejewski (241.7) 0.2 behind in second place.
China’s Yao Qianxuan (221.7) bagged the bronze medal.
National champion Suruchi had earlier won the event in the year’s first two World Cup stages in Buenos Aires and Lima as well. Buenos Aires was in fact her tournament debut and she has now won gold in all three of her first ISSF World Cup stages.
Continuing a run of form that stretches back to the Nationals in December, the Haryana girl shot 588 in qualification to equal the national record held by double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker. Yao topped the 110-field with a junior world record score of 589.
Bhaker ended 21st with a total of 574, while Palak was 30th with 570.
In the final, a 52.1 in the first series set her on course but by the end of the second five-shot series she was down to second. A 9.7 for her 11th brought her down to fourth and that seemed to have spurred her.
A cracking 10.8 gave her the lead back after the 12th and thereafter it was a battle of attrition. Camille and Yao were the prime chasers and the Frenchwoman took advantage of a few 9s by the Indian to go into the lead after the 18th shot.
Then Yao fired a 9.4 in her 22nd shot and the Indian took the second spot behind Camille going into the final two shots. She was 0.5 behind at that stage of the final.
That became 0.5 ahead after the 23rd shot when she fired a 10.5 to Camille’s 9.5, and despite both shooters finishing with 9s, Suruchi held on to win.
Bhaker, who was doing commentary in the final, expressed her delight after her younger compatriot’s gold medal and believed Suruchi looked a bit nervous in the final.
The gold medallist said she was a bit lucky to have claimed the top prize.
“It was the closest among all the finals that I have played (in three World Cups) and I think I was a bit lucky too,” Suruchi said after the win.
This is India’s first gold medal in the prestigious tournament after the bronze won by Anjum Moudgil and Sift Kaur Samra earlier this week. (PTI)
