Anish Bhanwala wins standard pistol gold with world record

Anish Bhanwala gave a robust start for the Indian challenge by clinching the 25-metre standard pistol gold with a world junior record in the Junior World Shooting Championship in Suhl, Germany on Saturday.

The 14-year-old Anish shot 579 to win the gold seven points ahead of Florian Peter of Germany. In the process Anish also bettered the junior world record of 574 set by Denis Koulakov of Russia in Lahti, Finland, in 2002.

Interestingly, Anish has pistol prodigy Jaspal Rana as the national coach of the junior squad, who had made his initial impact on the world stage with the standard pistol gold in Milan, Italy, in 1994. Jaspal went on to win the Asian Games gold in centre fire pistol the same year in Hiroshima.

In the team competition, India lost the gold by seven points to China, which had three shooters almost on equal performance. The Indian fare ranged from 579 by Anish to 547 by Sambhaji Patil, with Anhad Jawanda shooting 561, and that resulted in the gold slip.

The 50-metre rifle prone shooters in both men and women’s events could not make much of an impression, as none of them could reach the top-20.