The Indian juggernaut is rolling, like never before.
Continuing their medal-winning spree at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Indian shooters almost clean swept the mixed events by clinching two gold and a silver on the concluding day.
India topped the tally with five gold and a silver, ahead of China, who finished second with two gold, two silver and five bronze. This is the first time India has topped the medals tally in three consecutive World Cups.
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First it was the 10m air rifle mixed event where the Indians featured in the gold-medal match. The pair of Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar thrashed their countrymates Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar for gold with a score of 16-2.
The duo shot outstandingly well and barring the first series in the gold-medal match, where Anjum had hit a 9.7, the pair hit all their shots above 10.1.
In the gold-medal match, two teams shoot at the same time and the combined scores are calculated in every series. The team scoring a better aggregate gets two points. The one who reaches 16 points first, wins. One point if the aggregate scores are tied.
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The format of the mixed event was changed once again in this edition of the World Cup. Unlike the last edition of the World Cup in Beijing, this time there were no quarterfinals and semifinals. Rather, the mixed matches saw two qualification rounds of 60-shot per team followed by bronze-medal match and gold match.
In the 10m air pistol gold match, the pair of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary broke no sweat in beating the Ukrainian pair of Olena Kostevych and Oleh Omelchuk 17-9.
The contrast was clear to see as Olena and Oleh's shooting is more than the age of Manu and Saurabh. But the Indian pair shot without any sign of worry, while the Ukrainians looked visibly nervous during the match.
"I feel the performance of our shooters have been outstanding this World Cup. This is better than our expectations," Jaspal Rana, who is Indian junior team's coach, told TOI. Rana also coaches Manu.
Talking about Manu's shooting, the coach was full of praise of the young shooter who displayed grit after early upset.
"She lost a medal and a quota due to the malfunction in the first match, but she came back with a quota and then gold. Who else can do that? Only a champion can come up with such performance," Rana added.