Junior Shooting World Championships: World at Aishwary’s feet
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 5
Young Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar saved his best for the final as he broke the junior world record to win the gold medal in the 50 metres rifle 3 positions event at the ISSF junior world championships in Lima, Peru.
Tomar, who represented India in the Tokyo Olympics, broke the finals world record with a score of 463.4 points. The 20-year-old won the gold by a big margin of 6.9 points. France’s Lucas Kryzs tallied 456.5 to win silver, while USA’s Gavin Barnick won bronze with a score of 446.6.
Earlier, Tomar equalled the world junior record in the qualifications after scoring 1185 points. Among the other Indians in the field, Sanskar Havelia was 11th with a score of 1160, Pankaj Mukheja 15th with 1157, Sartaj Tiwana 16th with 1157 and Gurman Singh finished 22nd with a score of 1153.
Surprise star
On Monday, 14-year-old Naamya Kapoor stunned a pedigreed crowd to walk away with the gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol event. Of the eight finalists, at least three, including Manu Bhaker, were international medallists. USA’s Katelyn Morgan Abeln was a silver medallist from the 2018 edition while France’s Camille Jedrzejewski won a Junior World Cup gold in 2018.
If I am being honest, we were not expecting a medal from her at all. We would have been happy if she only entered the final as this was her very first tournament. When we got the news that she had entered the final it gave us great joy. This will be a great confidence booster for her Praveen Kapoor, Naamya’s father
And yet Naamya, in her first international tournament, won gold after registering 36 hits, three clear of silver medallist Jedrzejewski. Manu finished third after losing a shoot-off against the Frenchwoman. Naamya had qualified for the final in sixth place with a total of 580 points.
The results not only stunned the finalists, it was surprising for the family as well. “If I am being honest, we were not expecting a medal from her at all. We would have been happy if she only entered the final as this was her very first tournament,” Naamya’s father Praveen Kapoor told The Tribune on Tuesday.
“When we got the news that she had entered the final it gave us great joy. Uske baad to sone pe suhaga ho gya (We hit the jackpot in the finals). This will be a great confidence booster for her,” added Praveen, who is a businessman.
Naamya took up the sport after seeing her elder sister Khushi shoot. Naamya honed her skills in Aim Shooting Academy in Faridabad. Praveen said that the last two years have been very hard on the youngster as she had to travel over three hours to train.
“There are only two places in and around Delhi if you seriously want to train in 25 metre pistol discipline. One is at the Karni Singh shooting range, which was shut due to the Covid pandemic. The other range is in the Manav Rachna University,” Praveen said. “It was tiring for her but if you want to train seriously you have to go through these struggles,” he added.
