Rudrankksh Patil, 21, shoots second gold for India in ISSF World Cup

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, already a former world champion shooter at 21 years, earned India their second gold at the season-opening ISSF World Cup in the men’s 10m air rifle final in Buenos Aires on Sunday. India now jointly lead the medal standings with China, both nations showing two gold, one silver and one bronze till now.

The young Indian champion was constantly being pursued by the in-form Hungarian rifle shooter Istvan Peni, fresh from a men’s 3P gold a couple of days back, but pulled out the big shots when it mattered to end with a score of 252.9. Sift Kaur Samra had landed India their first gold two days back.

Host Argentina’s Marcelo Julian Gutierezz finished with a bronzein the 24-shot eight-man final of 10m air rifle with his score on 230.1 at that stage, 0.4 behind Peni and 1.6 behind leader Patil.

The men’s air rifle qualifications had two relays and Indians topped both of them with Arjun Babuta’s sizzling 634.5 over his 60-shots in the first the best of the lot. Rudrankksh followed with an equally impressive 633.7 to top the second and finish second overall. The third Indian in the medal hunt, Hriday Hazarika, shot 624.6 in the second relay, to finish in 22^nd spot overall.

Patil however, made his intentions clear with a 10.7 to start the final and hit the 9-ring only once, that too for his 19^thshot by which time gold was almost certain. In between, he set the Tiro Federal Argentino de Buenos Aires shooting range on fire with eight shots of 10.5 or above and three perfect 10.9s to put lots of icing on the cake.

To his credit, he shrugged off the 19^th effortlessly, closing with scores of 10.2, 10.8, 10.5, 10.4 and 10.8 for a special victory. At one point Peni caught up at the 13^th shot but Patil fired a 10.9 in his 14^th to stretch the lead over a point once again.

The championship is yet to yield a medal finish for double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, who on Saturday finished sixth in the women’s 25m pistol final. Esha Singh gave a better account of herself to clinch the silver medal at the event.