India’s star shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar is off to a rousing start to 2024, as he not only won the gold medal in men’s 10m air rifle at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Cairo, Egypt but also broke a world record in the process. The 21-year-old shot an unbelievable 253.7 in the final, surpassing the previous record held by China’s Sheng Lihao (253.3).
For Divyansh, it all started at the qualification round itself, where he scored 632.4, topping the precursor event. He had a lead of 1.9 points over silver-winning Italian Dani Sollazo. What is even more praiseworthy is, during his 24-round qualification, Divyansh did not even once get a score below 10, with two of them being perfect 10.9s.
“I am happy to win gold after a long time. I had been shooting well in recent times but was missing out. This will surely give me confidence coming into an important year,” said Divyansh. Meanwhile, it wasn’t a very rewarding day for compatriot Arjun Babuta, who finished sixth in the final. Serbia’s Lazar Kovacevic won the bronze medal.
Still very young, this is Divyansh’s fifth gold at the World Cup, and second individual gold, with his last coming in 2018.
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