Saurabh Chaudhary faced a dilemma on the eve of the World Cup. India’s best bet in 10m air pistol, the 16-year-old, was not sure about his participation at the Karni Singh range, since he was to appear for his secondary board examination, which started early this month.

After a lot of deliberation, he decided to give the examination a miss and play the World Cup. His sacrifice paid rich dividends on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh boy sounded happy as he clinched the gold medal and an Olympic quota place for India with a new world record.

“Now it seems I took the right decision not to appear for my examination and come here to compete. The result is indeed satisfactory. But I also have clear my examination next year,” said the youngster with a shy smile.

Saurabh ensured the third Olympic quota place for India. The first two were bagged by Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil. Saurabh broke the previous world record set by Ukraine’s Omelchuk Oleh in May 2018 at the Munich World Cup by 1.4 points.

Competing in his first World Cup, Saurabh won the event with a record score of 245.0 after some phenomenal shooting. With the new milestone, Saurabh now has gold in both junior and senior World Cup and world records in both junior and senior sections.

Dami Mikec of Serbia was second on the podium with a score of 239.3. The bronze medal was bagged by 2008 Olympic champion, Wei Pang of China, who managed 215.2.

Saurabh received huge support from the stands. Several people from his native place – Kalina village near Meerut – came down to watch their boy in the World Cup. They cheered Saurabh loudly but the shooter said he could hardly hear them.

“Mentally, I shut myself off and concentrated only on the event. Even at the Asian Games I did the same when I won the gold. This tactics always help me,” Saurabh said.

Last year, Saurabh won gold at the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, in addition to being crowned junior world champion and Youth Olympic champion.

He won one gold and a silver at the junior Asian championships, and a gold at a Youth Asian championship.

Other Indians competing in the event, Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh, failed to qualify for the final. Both Abhishek and Ravinder finished with a total score of 576 in the qualification round.

Manu Bhaker, however, could not add to India’s medal tally as she finished fifth in the women’s 25m pistol event. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist looked all set for a good result as she was placed joint second at one point of time. A poor last series of shots saw her fall out of medal contention.

Veronika Major of Hungary won the gold, while China’s Zhang Jingjing bagged the silver. The quotas also went to Hungary and China. Other Indians in the fray, Rahi Sarnobat and Chinki Yadav, shot 580 each to finish 15th and 17th respectively.

In the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event, Indian shooters failed to qualify for the final as Hungary’s Istvan Peni claimed the gold medal. Parul Kumar was ranked 22nd in the qualification with a total score of 1170, while Sanjeev Rajput finished 25th with 1169.