Anish Bhanwala trumped the gold medal in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. In a sensational CWG debut, the 15 years old shooter scored 30 to claims the top position, becoming India’s youngest ever gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games.
Anish with his incredible talent entered the six-man finals having topped the second stage of qualification with a total of 580 and 22 central bulls.
The young talent presented much of his flair to emerge through the event to claim the champion’s title. Sergei Evglevski, the Australian claimed the silver with his 28, while the bronze medal went to Sam Gowin of England with his score of 17.
The other Indian entrant in the event, Neeraj Kumar with his 13 points was the second shooter to be eliminated in the finals after a shoot-off. Anish claiming the gold medal beats 16-year-old Manu Bhaker to become India’s youngest CWG gold medalist this week. Manu Bhaker emerged championship in the 10m air rifle finals.
The youngest in the field, he showed nerves of steel and led the more experienced shooters through the event to emerge deserving champion. Evglevski shot a valiant four to claim his first Commonwealth medal and join his mother, Lalita Yauhleuskaya who also is 10-time Commonwealth medallist.
In the Qualifications, Anish scored 580 to finish top of the tally while Neeraj was second best with 579. Anish scored 286 in stage 1 and 294 in stage 2 qualifying, while Neeraj had 291 in stage 1 and 288 in stage 2.
The young athlete in the Indian team said, "I'm very excited that I became the Commonwealth champion. I am the youngest athlete from India to win Commonwealth gold at 15." On his next competition and plans of celebration, "Next are the world championships (in South Korea) and Asian Games (Indonesia). I will celebrate with my coach."
(Input from PTI)