Doha, Dec 7 (LatestNewsX) – Rapid‑fire pistol champion Anish Bhanwala capped a strong second day for India at the ISSF World Cup Final held in Doha, finishing with a silver medal in the men’s 25 m rapid‑fire pistol. The Indian shooter hit 31 targets, trailing Chinese veteran and Olympic champion Li Yuehong by just two shots in the Sunday final at the Lusail Shooting Complex. This marks Bhanwala’s second World Cup Final medal at the venue, improving on the bronze he earned there two years ago. France’s world champion Clement Bessaguet took bronze, while Li secured his second gold and fifth medal overall in the competition.
India’s tally grew to two golds, three silvers and a bronze after Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar also earned silver in the men’s 50 m rifle 3‑position earlier that day, and Simranpreet Kaur Brar captured gold in the women’s 25 m pistol. China topped the medal table with three golds, two silvers and three bronzes. On Monday, Zorawar Sandhu will give India another medal chance in the men’s trap final.
The Doha event adopted the new ISSF format, expanding the men’s rapid‑fire pistol final to eight shooters instead of six. Bhanwala advanced with a qualifying score of 583 and Vijayveer landed eighth with 579. Bessaguet led the final with 590, followed by Li with 587. In the eight‑series final, Sidhu missed a shot in the first two series but hit clean in the third, avoiding a five‑way shoot‑out for seventh. Germany’s Emanuel Mueller and teammate Peter Florian also failed to escape a shoot‑out after scoring two in their series. Bhanwala steadied himself with a perfect fifth series, moving into joint second.
As the contest progressed, Li maintained composure while Vijayveer struggled to stay in the top three. Bhanwala’s solid fourth series vaulted him to sole second, leaving the second Chinese shooter in fifth place. In the sixth series, Vijayveer hit two, and Bessaguet responded with a flawless five, securing a third World Cup Final medal. All medalists registered four hits in the final series, setting up a shoot‑out between Bhanwala and Bessaguet for bronze. Bessaguet delivered four, but Bhanwala’s spectacular clean five forced another showdown, this time against Li. Bhanwala’s final series gave him two points but fell short, allowing Li to claim his second gold and fifth overall medal, and adding a third international silver for the Indian shooter.
After the event, Bhanwala reflected, “Yes it has turned out to be a great competition for me. I was vacationing after the world championships and trained just enough for this match. It was a great competition and I enjoyed the new format. It’s great because there are more finalists and so more nations will be able to cheer their athletes and earlier 50% of the finalists used to win medals so this is more competitive. It’s good for RFP overall.”
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