Gold Coast
Indian Shooter Jitu Rai on Monday won Gold in men’s 10m air pistol event in Commonwealth games at Belmont Shooting Centre on Day Five of the Gold Coast CWG.
World Championship Silver Medallist Rai shot 235.1 to comfortably finish top of the podium.
His younger teammate Om Mitharval also won Bronze in the same event and established a new qualifications record with 584 and settled for third place after aggregating 214.3 in the eight-man finals at the Belmont Shooting Centre.
Rai, who won a silver medal at the World Championship, led the final round with scores of 100.4 at the end of Stage 1, while Mitharval was third with 98.1.
In Stage 2 elimination, Rai started off with scores of 10.3 and 10.3 to take the lead, even as his younger teammate moved up and displaced Bell in second place with two 10.1s.
Rai continued to stay ahead with a 10.2 but an 8.4 stopped his momentum somewhat, as the next shot fetched him only 9.2.
Meanwhile, Mitharval closed the gap, as Rai scored just 8.8 on the 18th shot to Mitharval’s 10.0.
However, Mitharval got slipped, while Rai managed another 10.0 and maintained the lead thereafter to emerge triumphant.
He scored an impressive 584 points to top qualifying. With a series of 96, 96, 98, 99, 96 he equalled the Commonwealth Games qualifying record, which was set by compatriot Omkar Singh at the Delhi Games in 2010.
Jitu Rai was only fourth best in qualifying, a series of 92 and 94 bringing his total down to 570.
With these two medals, India’s tally goes up to 15 with the shooter delivering five medals. Weightlifters have accounted for nine medals.