The MP shooter leaves previous heartbreaks behind to clinch 50m Rifle 3P top position
PUNE: Just when Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar's disappointment with the Cairo shooting range was growing, the Madhya Pradesh shooter did what the doctor had advised - win a gold medal.
The former World No. 1 shooter, who had failed to enter the finals in his last two attempts at the venue (World Cup, World Championships), clinched the top spot in his third attempt in the past 12 months - the 22-year-old won the men's 50m rifle 3 position gold in the ISSF World Cup on Wednesday.
The Tokyo Games participant topped the eight-man qualification round with a score of 588 and then shot 406.4 to finish second in the ranking round. In the gold medal match, Aishwary defeated Austrian shooter Alexander Schmirl 16-6.
"This was my third time at this range in the last one year. I had finished out of the qualification bracket in my previous attempts. This was of course playing on my mind when I started the match," Aishwary, who had finished 14th in his previous two appearances in Cairo, told TOI.
"But this time I was determined to win here. Such thoughts add pressure, but pressure is anyway there. Hence, I was thinking about winning and it worked," he said.
This was Aishwary's third World Cup gold, going with his top-place finish in Delhi in 2021 and Changwon in 2022.
Aishwary, who is back to No. 1 in the national rankings after a dip in form last year, said getting time to train helped him find his form. "I made some adjustments to my rifle, but more than that, I feel our coaches' decision to skip the first World Cup of this year in Indonesia helped us in getting time to train better," he said.
Other Indians in the fray, Akhil Sheoran (7th) and Swapnil Kusale (35th) finished medal-less.
In the women's 25m sports pistol, Rhythm Sangwan finished fourth after qualifying for the ranking round with an impressive score of 589. Manu Bhaker finished 32nd, with a total score of 571, while Esha Singh was 34th with 570.
