New Delhi: Apurvi Chandela won the first gold for India at the ISSF World Cup by finishing on top of the women’s 10 metre Air Rifle category here on Saturday. Apurvi also set a new world record with 252.9 points on the way to the title. The Chinese took home both the silver and bronze medals. Zhao Ruozhu finished second with 251.8 points while her compatriot Xu Hong had to settle for the third spot with 230.4. Apurvi, who had booked a quota place for the 2020 Olympics last year, thus bagged her third individual medal at a World Cup. In 2015, she had taken bronze at the World Cup in Changwon and clinched silver at the ISSF World Cup Finals later the same year.
She had a successful run last year, taking bronze in women’s 10m Air Rifle at the Commonwealth Games and another bronze with Ravi Kumar in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the Asian Games. The victory sees her become India’s first World Cup gold-medallist in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle since Anjali Bhagwat in 2003, and only the fourth Indian woman to win a World Cup title.
Apurvi and compatriot Anjum Moudgil bagged two Olympic quotas in September last year when they finished fourth and second respectively in the women’s 10m air rifle at the World Championships. Apurvi had qualified for Friday’s final round by finishing fourth in the qualification round with a score of 629.3.
Zhao Ruozhu took pole position at the end of the qualification round with a qualifications world record of 634 points. Fellow Chinese Zhu Yingjie was second with 630.8 points while Ho Xiu Yi of Singapore was third in the qualification standings with 629.5. Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan, the other Indians in the fray, registered disappointing performances and failed to enter the final.
