CWG 2018: Indian Shooter Anish Earns Gold

Gold Coast (Australia): Indian shooter Anish Bhanwala fired a new meet record to win gold in Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Friday.

Anish scored 30 points in the finals to finish two points ahead of Australia's Sergei Evglevski. Sam Gowin of England scored 17 to take the bronze medal. Neeraj Kumar, the other Indian in the fray, finished fifth in the six-man final with a score of 13. The 15-year-old Anish is India's youngest ever gold medallist at the CWG.

Coached by former India star Jaspal Rana, the Haryana lad has been going through a superb run of form in recent months. He had set a new junior world record of 579 out of a possible 600 on his way to the gold medal in 25m standard pistol at the at the 2017 ISSF Junior World Championships in Suhl, Germany. Earlier on Friday, Anish and Neeraj topped the qualification stage to enter the final in style. Anish took pole position with 580 points while Neeraj was second with 579.

Evglevski was fourth with 576, followed by Pakistan's Muhammad Khalil Akhtar at 571. Gowin scored 568 while David Chapman, the second Australian in the fray, notched up a tally of 566 points in the qualification round.

-IANS