Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, 21, showed the ability to adapt quickly to the match situation on Saturday, and won the gold in the men's 3 Position match comfortably at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Changwon, South Korea.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has changed the formats of all the events since January 1 this year. In the 50m 3P competition, shooters used to fire 120 shots (40 each in standing, kneeling and prone). In the new format, shooters have to fire only 60 shots (20 each). Aishwary was comfortable with the old format but showed on Saturday that he has the ability to shoot well in any format.
He qualified for the ranking round after scoring 593/ 600 in the field that included Tokyo bronze medallist Milenko Sebic of Serbia. The former world No. 1 shooter was only one point behind the current world record qualifying score of 594, shot by Ukraine shooter Serhiy Kulish.
Aishwary later shot 409. 8 to make the cut for the gold medal match. He defeated Hungary's Zalan Pekler 16-12 to win gold. Another Indian, Chain Singh, made it to the medal round for the first time since 2015, but finished seventh. Chain had participated in the 2016 Rio Games.
"I prefer the 40-shot (each) format. But then the rules have changed, and I must adapt as per the changes. I am happy to have scored 5 93 in the qualification round," Aishwary told TOI after his match on Saturday. Aishwary was part of the Tokyo Olympics contingent and was ranked No. 1 in his event. The Madhya Pradesh shooter has moved on from the disappointment of Tokyo and is now looking to win the quota place for Paris Olympics.
"Yes, it (Tokyo) was a difficult phase and the morale was down, but I had to get up and work hard. I won gold at the junior World Championships with a world record score in Peru. I then won the national title. All this lifted my morale and now I am confident of winning at this level," Aishwary said. This was Aishwary's second senior World Cup gold after he took his first in New Delhi in 2021.
In the women's 50m rifle 3P event, Anjum Moudgil entered the ranking round and will p lay for the medal on Sunday. The newly-appointed coach for the 50m rifle events, Joydeep Karmakar, said he was happy to see the progress of 50m shooters but he was far from being content.
"It feels good to see the 50m shooters doing well and being among the medals but it is a work in progress. I feel our shooters are scoring well and the competition at the domestic level is also increasing, which is making things even better," Karmakar, who finished fourth in the 50m rifle prone final at the 2012 London Games, said.
"Our 10m air rifle shooters have been doing well and it is delighting to see the 50m shooters come up," he added.
In the women's 25m pistol event, Manu Bhaker finished fourth.
