Teen sensation Saurabh Chaudhary earned a Tokyo 2020 Olympics quota place for India with a stunning performance on Day 2 of the ISSF Shooting World Cup at Dr Karni Karni Singh Range, New Delhi Sunday.
On Day 2 of the competition, 16-year-old Chaudhary shot a spectacular 245 for a new world record in the final to win the Men's 10m Air Pistol event.
Chaudhary shattered the previous record, set by Ukraine's Omelchuk Oleh in May 2018 at the Munich World Cup by, 1.4 points.
Competing in his first ever World Cup, the Meerut boy was relentless from the start even as his compatriots Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh were eliminated early in the event, failing to qualify for the final.
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Both Abhishek and Ravinder finished with respective scores of 576 in the qualification round.
For the record, Chaudhary is the youngest Indian gold medalist at the Asian Games, and also the only Indian shooter to win gold medals in World Championship, World Cup, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games and Asian Air Gun Championship.
India thus secured its third quota place for the 2020 Olympics.
Such was Saurabh's dominance in the eight-man final that he finished the event 5.7 points ahead of the silver medallist, the gold assured even before his final shot.
Dami Mikec of Serbia was second in the podium with a score of 239.3, while the bronze medal was bagged by Wei Pang of China, who managed 215.2.
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The Indian shooter started strongly to finish tied on top with Mikec at the end of the first series.
In the second series, the junior world record holder continued his good form and finished at the top and won India's second gold medal.
On Day 1 yesterday, Apurvi Chandela shattered the world record on her way to the gold medal in women's 10m Air Rifle event.
Chandela, 26, shot an astonishing 252.9 to win the top prize on the first stage of the 2019 ISSF World Cup, which also serves as one of the qualifying events of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
She had already secured a Tokyo Olympic quota in the last World Championships.
