Rahi Sarnobat Wins First Gold: Olympic-bound shooter Rahi Sarnobat secured a Gold Medal in women's 25m pistol category at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Shooting World Cup on Monday, held in Osijek, Croatia. Olympian Manu Bhaker ended in the seventh position in the same event.
Sarnobat secured first Gold for India in the ongoing edition of the games after one silver and one bronze medal that was earlier clinched in the tournament by the Indian athletes. The 30-year-old shooter fired a final score of 39 after she qualified second with a total 591 points. In the final, her performance included perfect scores in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth series.
French shooter Mathilde Lamolle secured the second position and won Silver scoring 31 points in the final, while Russia's Vitalina Batsarashkina scored 28 points and won a Bronze medal. Sarnobat fired a total point of 296 in the rapid-fire on Monday and 295 on Sunday.
On the other hand, Bhaker fired 588 to qualify third after firing 296 in the rapid-fire on Monday, and 292 in the precision round on Sunday. Bhaker was eliminated early in the final with a score of 11 and lost to Bulgaria's Viktoria Chaika.
Who is Rahi Sarnobat?
Rahi Jeevan Sarnobat is an Indian shooter who competes in the 25 meters pistol shooting event. The Olympic bound player won her first Gold medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games held in Pune and is also the first woman to win a gold medal for India in an Asian Games. Sarnobat won Gold Medal at the 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games in the women's 25m category.
Among her several accomplishments, she has won two Gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in 25m pistol event with Anisa Sayyed. Sarnobat also won the gold medal at the Munich World cup in 2019 and further qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.