The women’s 10m air pistol competition at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games

Summer Youth Olympics 2018 

Shooting Competition at  Buenos Aires 2018

India Gold Medal Win in Shooting Competition

BUENOS AIRES - Third time is the golden charm for India In the women’s 10m air pistol competition at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games .

Manu Bhaker (IND) dominated the field from her first shot and closed with nerves of steel to clinch the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol competition at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games on Tuesday.

It is the third shooting medal in as many days for India after Shahu Tushar Mane and Mehuli Ghosh won silver medals in the 10m air rifle competitions in the men’s and women’s events respectively. 

“I don’t think there is a secret for the India shooting national team’s success here in Buenos Aires,” said Bhaker as she clutched her gold medal with both hands. “I think it’s just the result of our hard work.”

The 16-year-old, who has already won gold medals in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup and Commonwealth Games this year, secured the contest at Sarmiento Park with a score of 236.5 points. “I didn’t feel anything in particular throughout the competition,” she said.

“I was just thinking of taking each shot at a time and I wasn’t even looking at the screen. Then all of a sudden it was all over and I said, ‘Oh my God, I won it.’ It feels great.”

Russian Iana Enina’s impressive recovery and improvement through the knock-out rounds was enough for her to avoid elimination several times where she looked at risk. She eventually reached the final round by surpassing bronze medallist Nino Khutsiberidze (GEO) by 0.1 points.

But her late form was not enough for her to recover the ground that she had lost to Bhaker and she had to settle for silver, 0.6 points behind the Indian.

 “At one point when I was facing early elimination I said to myself, ‘Get your act together. Get a grip and do what you know best,’ and things improved from there,” said Enina, who only had praise for Bhaker. “We know each other well and we competed in different competitions. She is a fantastic shooter and deserved to win today.”

After just missing out on the podium, fourth-placed Kanyakorn Hirunphoem (THA) said: “I was too close to winning a medal and it hurts not to have been able to achieve that. I want to get back to Thailand and work to correct the mistakes I’ve made.”

Andrea Victoria Ibarra Miranda (MEX) was happy to have taken part. “I’m so proud right now,” she said. “I’m the ninth-place shooter. To me it is a great achievement. I understand that for some people coming ninth means being out of the final and it is like getting too close to progressing, but I won’t let that disappoint me because to me this result is a great success.”

Gloria Fernandez (ESP) was unable to look at it so philosophically. “To me it was a complete disaster,” said the shooter who finished in 17th place. “I am without a coach here. I had a coach until recently but now I’m on my own. That makes it very difficult for me to compete. I felt I was shooting very well in previous competitions, but now I’m left alone and that is affecting my performances.”