The 2018 Asian Games Champion, India’s Chaudhary Saurabh, triumphed at the 52nd ISSF World Championship in Changwon, Korea, as he won today’s 10m Air Pistol Men junior event with an outstanding score of 245.5 points, setting a new junior world record.
The 16-year old shattered the previous world record of 243.7 points, a record he had set just a couple of months ago, at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Germany (USA), on the the 26th June 2018.
Saurabh gained the lead of today’s final match after nailing a great 10.9 on his eighth final shot. From there on, he kept on piling up tenths of advantage over his opponents that missed some crucial shots, failing to catch him up.
The Indian champion turned out to be unbeatable. With his record score, he finished 2.4 points ahead of silver medalist Lim Honjin (KOR), second with 243.1 points. The South Korea shooter, competing on his home turf, was supported here by a number of fans who carried him on with their cheering, shot after shot.
In spite of hitting the eighth ring a couple of times, the 17-year-old shooter was able to climb back the scoreboard right to the second place thanks to two 10.9s shot in a row. History repeats: Lim had won a silver medal also at this year’s ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, finishing behind the same Saurabh and his record scores.
The Indian team celebrated twice, today, as 17-year old Arjun Singh Cheema joined Saurabh on the podium in third place, begging bronze with 218.0 points. To end up in the medal standings, he disappointed 19-year old Dionysios Korakakis, the brother of the 2016 Olympic Champion Anna Korakaki of Greece. Dionysios finished in fourth with 197.4, besting Italy’s Paolo Monna (5th with 178.3 points), the second South Korea finalist Sung Yunho (6th with 156.9 points), China’s Xie Yu (7th with 135.4 points) and Germany’s Robin Walter (8th with 114.8 points).
In the Team event, it was the Republic of Korea that nailed the gold, with a new junior world record of 1732 points, scored by Lim Hojin, Sung Yunho and Shin Okcheol. Team India, led by the new junior world champion Saurabh, finished in second place with 1730 points (Chaudhary Saurabh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Anmol Anmol). The Russian Federation followed in third with 1711 points (Alexander Petrov, Aleksandr Kondrashin and Anton Aristarkhov).