New Delhi: India's promising shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary nailed the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team gold on the concluding day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol to ensure that India finished joint top in the medals tally with Hungary, both winning three gold medals each.
Manu and Saurabh shot a score of 483.4 in the 50-shot five-team final, 5.7 points ahead of the silver winning Chinese pair of Jiang Ranxin and Zhang Bowen who shot 477.7.
South Korea's Kim Minjung and Park Daehun won the bronze with an effort of 418.8, being eliminated in third position after the 48th shot.
The Indian pair had a great final day ensuring India had a golden finish to add to a golden beginning when Apurvi Chandela had given India the first yellow metal in the competition, winning the Women's 10m Air Rifle event.
Manu and Saurabh in the process also shattered the junior qualifying world record and equalled the senior qualifying world record, when they shot 778 to top the 39-team qualifying round.
Two teams from South Korea and one each from China, Ukraine and India had made it to the finals.
India's second pair in the event, Heena Sidhu and Abhishek Verma narrowly missed the finals, ending up in ninth place with a score of 770, just two short of the fifth placed team's score.
In the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team, China's Zhao Ruozhu and Liu Yukun shattered the world record to win gold with a score of 503.6. Romania got silver and South Korea settled for bronze.
Here too the Indian pair of Ravi Kumar and Anjum Moudgil narrowly missed making the five-team final cut, shooting a score of 836.3 in qualifying to end in seventh place.
The fifth qualifying spot went at a score of 836.5. The other Indian pair of Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar, shot 831 to secure 25th position.
The New Delhi World Cup, which also distributed 14 Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games quota places, two each in seven events, was played over five days and across 10 Rifle and Pistol Olympic events.
China won a maximum of five quotas, followed by Hungary with two. Hosts India, Austria, Serbia, Italy, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Switzerland won one quota place each.
The ISSF bandwagon moves next to Acapulco, Mexico, for the Shotgun World Cup. The next Rifle/Pistol Word Cup is scheduled in Beijing at end-April.
