Aishwary Pratap Tomar wins gold in 50m rifle 3 positions

TIL Desk Sports/ Young Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar claimed the gold medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event, consolidating the host nation’s top standing in the ISSF World Cup here on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old from Bhopal shot 462.5 to win the top prize ahead of Hungary’s star rifleman Istvan Peni (461.6) and Denmark’s Steffen Olsen (450.9) at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. This was India’s eighth gold medal at the ongoing marquee event.

The other Indians in the final, veteran Sanjeev Rajput and Niraj Kumar, finished sixth and eighth respectively. After an impressive start following which he led for a while, Tomar slipped in the standings but fought back strongly with a 10.4, 10.5 and 10.3 in the standing elimination stage. Tomar is a Tokyo Olympics quota-holder.

He won the bronze medal in the 50 metre rifle 3 positions event at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships to secure a quota place for India at the Olympics. This comes three days after Tomar combined with Deepak Kumar and Pankaj Kumar to win the silver medal in the men’s team air rifle event.