ISSF World Cup: India's Manu Bhaker shoots gold with world record score

Ace Indian shooter Manu Bhaker on Thursday made India proud by bagging the country's first gold medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Rifle and Pistol World Cup at Putian in China.

The 17-year-old achieved the feat by posting a score of 244.7 in the final of the women's 10m air pistol event of the tournament. 

En route to the same, Bhaker--who has already secured a quota for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games-- also broke the junior world record. Meanwhile, she also became only the second Indian shooter after Heena Sidhu to clinch the yellow metal in the 10m air pistol event of the ISSF World Cup.

Yashaswini Deswal, the other Indian in the fray, shot a score of 158.8 to make a sixth-place finish in the summit showdown. 

Zorana Arunovic of Serbia bagged a silver medal in the event with a score of 241.9, while China's Quian Wang settled for the third spot after registering a score of 221.8 in the eight-player final.

Earlier, Bhaker and Yashaswini finished at the seventh and the eighth spots, respectively in the qualification round to make it to the final of the women's 10m air pistol event.

On Wednesday, Bhaker had failed to book her place in the final of the women's 25m pistol event after managing a score of just 583 in the qualification round.

 Bhaker had posted 292 and 291 in the precision and rapid events, respectively to tie with two other shooters on the same score. However, she failed to make it to the final due to having lesser number of inner 10s as compared to the other two.