Anish Bhanwala wins India's first-ever 25m rapid fire medal in World Cup Final

Anish Bhanwala (Pic: @OfficialNRAI/X)

Pistol shooter Anish Bhanwala won India's first-ever 25m rapid-fire medal in the ISSF World Cup final as he bagged a bronze on Friday. The 21-year-old Anish shot 27 in the final to win the bronze.

World championship bronze medallist Peter Florian of Germany took the gold with 35 hits while reigning world champion and double Olympic medallist Li Yuehong of China was second with 33 hits after eight series of five rapid-fire shots.

The medal in the season-ending competition capped a momentous year for the 21-year-old, who won a first ever senior individual ISSF World Cup stage medal and a first senior Asian Championships medal and a Paris Olympic quota place.

However, Anish, who was India's final start at the Doha World Cup Final, barely made it to the six-man final. His qualification score of 581 was just enough to pip German ace Christian Reitz to seventh. But with all three Baku World Championship medallists in the final, the Haryana lad had his work cut out.

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Florian blasted four perfect fives to start with and then had another five in the seventh series, which was enough to give him the gold.

Yuehong also had four perfect series of five hits and a couple of fours, which ensured that his score of two in the seventh series did not deny him a medal lesser than silver. Anish, on the other hand, did well to keep pace with the high level of shooting all around, blasting two fives for his third and fourth series to go with three series of four-hits. Chinese Jueming Zhang was the first to be eliminated with 12 hits in the first four series. He was followed by Clement Bessaguet who had 18 after five.

Czech Matej Rampula wilted with a no-hit in the sixth series, which ensured a medal for Anish. The Indian was two behind the Chinese world champion Yuehong when he bowed out after the seventh series.

(With agency inputs)