Indian shooter Rahi Sarnobat claimed silver despite enduring a weapon malfunction in the women's 25m pistol event of the ISSF President's Cup at Wroclaw, Poland on Tuesday. Manu Bhaker, after finishing sixth in the 25m individual event, came back to win the gold medal with Turkey's Ozgur Varlik in the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team contest by a margin of 9-7 over the Chinese/Estonian pair of Xiao Jiaruixuan and Peeter Olesk.
Sarnobat fired 31 in the final, missing a few crucial shots in the last two series after suffering a pistol malfunction. Before the problem occurred in her pistol, Sarnobat was consistently doing well, finding the target three times on the trot towards the end of the final.
The other Indian in the final, Bhaker, was eliminated in sixth place. Germany's Vennekamp won the gold medal with a score of 33, while Mathilde Lamolle won bronze with 27. It was a strong field featuring Rio Olympic champion Anna Korakaki of Greece and Tokyo bronze medallist Xiao Jiaruixuan of China among others.
Later in the day, the Indo-Turkish pair of Bhaker and Varlik opened up a healthy lead of 6-2 in the early stages but Xiao and Peeter fought back to level the match at 6-6. Bhaker and Varlik then went ahead 8-6 before tying the final series at 5-5 to earn the crucial ninth point and seal the deal.
In all, India won five medals in the season-ending tournament which was earlier called the ISSF World Cup Finals. Besides Bhaker's gold medal and Sarnobat's silver on the final day, Saurabh Chaudhary also won a silver and Abhishek Verma a bronze in the men's 10m air pistol (individual) competition earlier in the tournament.
Bhaker also teamed up with Olympic champion Javad Foroughi of Iran to win the 10m air pistol mixed team title.