Anish Bhanwala clinches World Championships silver

Cairo, Nov 10 (PTI) India's Anish Bhanwala endured two nerve-wracking shoot-offs in a high-quality 25m rapid-fire pistol final to clinch the biggest medal in his shooting career, a silver at the ISSF World Championships (Pistol/Rifle) here on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Haryana marksman more than made up for his 2024 Paris Olympics disappointment with a steady performance that saw him first survive a shoot-off for the third place, and then ward off the challenge from Ukraine's Maksym Horodynets to win the silver medal with a score of 28 in a competition that tested the resolve of all the six finalists.

The Sonipat shooter looked determined on Sunday as he first qualified for the finals in second place with a brilliant 585.

After shooting 291 in Stage 1 of the qualification on Saturday, he came back determined to notch up 294 in Stage 2 on Sunday and make it to the first pistol final of the World Championships.

Frenchman Clement Bessaguet, who won the gold tallying 31 points, topped the qualification with a score of 589.

In the final, Anish, for whom Cairo is a happy hunting ground having won the World Championships mixed team silver here in 2022 besides a few World Cup medals, was in the 'zone' as he shot a perfect five in the opening series.

The Indian, who finished 13th at the Paris Games, was placed second after the first three series of five shots each with a score of 16, while China's Ni Zhixin was the leader with 17 points.

He carried the tempo into the elimination round by shooting consecutive scores of 4 each to be tied with three others on 20 points.

But he faltered in the third elimination round, missing three targets to total 22 and fall back even as Clement emerged a clear leader with a score of 25 points.

Anish then survived a shoot-off with Germany's Emanuel Mueller for the third place and finally overcame Ukraine's Maksym in the shoot-off for silver.

Anish's achievement in the event is only second to Vijay Kumar's silver-medal feat at the 2012 London Olympics.

The other Indians in the fray, Adarsh Singh (575 – 285+290) and Sameer (571 – 286+285) finished 22nd and 35th respectively.

The Indian team, comprising Anish, Adarsh and Sameer, finished fifth aggregating a score of 1731. PTI AM AM DDV