Samrat Rana Becomes 10m Air Pistol World Champion; Varun Tomar Claims Bronze

Young Indian shooter Samrat Rana came up with breathtaking show of marksmanship to clinch the men's 10m air pistol gold and make history at the prestigious ISSF World Championships in Cairo on Monday.

The 20-year-old Samrat became the first Indian pistol shooter in an Olympic discipline to become world champion and, in the process, also helped India win the team gold in the event.

With three gold, three silver and as many bronze, India jumped from fifth spot to third as China led the table with six gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

Samrat, who hails from Karnal, shot an amazing 243.7 in the final to beat back the challenge of China's Hu Kai, who took the silver in a nerve-wracking medal round with a score of 243.3.

India's Varun Tomar, who comes from a small village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh and is a cousin of Olympian pistol ace Saurabh Chaudhary, shot 221.7 to take the bronze in a high-intensity final, which saw the lead changing hands among the three shooters multiple times.

However, it was Samrat who stuck to basics and never flinched even once as he converted his junior success into triumph at the senior level at the same venue where he had won two gold medals -- junior air pistol team and junior mixed team -- at the the 2022 World Championships.

This is also the first time two Indian shooters won medals in the same event at the World Championships.

Coached by his father since 2018, Samrat had been knocking at the doorsteps of success at the senior level for the last one year. A student of DAV College, Karnal, Samrat clinched the World University gold last year and recently missed qualifying for the ISSF World Cup final in Ningbo, China by the thinnest of margins.

But on Monday, he left no room for any doubt as he showed his intentions in the qualification round with a excellent 586, which placed him at the top of the leaderboard.

Varun, too, was in the 'zone' as he came up with an identical score but finished second behind Samrat because of fewer 'inner 10s' -- Samrat had 27, while Varun had 26.

In the final, the Indian duo, and China's Hu Kai, who had won gold in the ISSF World Cup in Ningbo, kept fighting for decimals with the lead changing hands multiple times before Samrat won by a margin of 0.4 in a contest where the 24th and last shot decided the gold medallist.

The third Indian in the fray, Shravan Kumar shot 582 to finish 12th.

India clinched the team gold with the trio of Samrat (586), Varun (586) and Shravan (582) aggregating 1754. Italy were a distant second with 17467, while Germany (1740) took bronze.

"I am overjoyed with VArun's performance," Varun's father Vishesh, a teacher in Benoli village of Bagjhpat, told PTI.

"I always told Varun to pursue his dreams and never told to pursue academics," said Vishesh, adding that his son took up shooting after watching the success of Saurabh.

"Saurabh is Varun's cousin and they have trained under the same coach in Benoli before Varun, a Naib Subedar in the Army, moved to Meerut under a new coach.

"Varun is now in National Centre of Excellence in Karni Singh Ranges, Delhi and I feel all the hard work he has put in over the years has paid off. I remember his coach telling me that Varun should take some rest but he became a 'workaholic' when it came to shooting," added his father.

Double Olympic-medallist shooter Manu Bhaker and multiple Asian Games medal winner Esha Singh suffered a meltdown in the women's 10m air pistol final as the country's top-two shooters could not win a medal.

Manu, winner of the 10m air pistol individual and mixed team bronze at Paris Olympics, had things going her way in the final before a poor 8.8 on the 14th shot saw her take a mighty tumble from the top spot to seventh as she finished with a score of 139.5.

Esha, who recently won the World Cup gold in Ningbo, could not turn her dream runs into a medal as inconsistencies and nerves got the better of her on the big stage as she faltered with an 8.4 on 14th shot after a superb 10.7 to finish sixth in the eight-shooter final.

India got a small consolation by winning a team silver with Esha (583), Manu (580) and world No.1 Suruchi Inder Singh (577) aggregating 1740 for the second-place finish.

Esha and Manu came into the final on the back of solid performances in qualification. Esha, who became the youngest air pistol national champion at the age of 13 and represented India in the women's 25m pistol at Paris Olympics, shot superbly to finish the qualification round at fourth with 583.

She even tallied a rare perfect-100 in the third series to enter the final on a high. Manu shot 580 in qualification to finish sixth and make the final.

She took the lead on the 13th shot in the final with a superb 10.7 but the next one - an 8.8 - led to her elimination.

The third Indian, 19-year-old Suruchi, who has won four World Cup gold this year to rise to No.1, shot satisfactorily to score 577 but, in a high-class field, it was only good enough to fetch her 14th place among 99 shooters.