Reigning world champion, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, won his first individual senior world cup stage gold, upstaging German challenger Maxmillian Ulbrich 16-8 in the gold medal match of the men’s 10m Air Rifle competition, on day three of the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, Egypt. This was Rudrankksh’s second and India’s third gold of the tournament, after he had won the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event on Monday, alongside R. Narmada Nithin. India is now placed firmly on top of the medal tally with three gold and one bronze medal with two more competition days left.
At the same Egypt International Olympic City Shooting range where he had won the world crown last October, Rudrankksh shot 629.3 in his qualification relay to rank sixth among shooters competing for a medal. In-fact, teammate Shahu Tushar Mane was the best Indian in the 73-strong field with a score of 630.9, placing him second overall but he was fighting for ranking points only. Two other Indians in the medal hunt, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Hriday Hazarika, also shot well finishing with scores of 628.9 and 628.8 respectively, but finished just outside the top eight.
In the ranking round, where the top eight qualifiers face-off over five series of five single shots each, to determine the top two who make it to the gold medal match, seasoned Israeli shooter Sergey Richter led after the first series with the Indian 1.2 behind in fifth.
The champion came into his elements from the second series and a perfect 10.9 for his 10th, gave him the lead for the first time. He held on to that slender 0.2 points lead over Croat Miran Maricic till the end of the third series and by the end of the fourth, that lead had swelled to 1.1. Israel’s Richter was holding on to third. With only four shooters left in the fray, the world champion topped by a distance with a score of 262 after 25-shots, however Maricic and Richter fell away as the young German Ulbrich came up quietly to finish second with 260.6. Maricic managed bronze with 260.5.
The German had earned the right to fight the world champion for gold and fight he did. The scores were tied 7-7 after the first seven single shots. However, Rudrankksh took the next three series to lead 13-7, despite the German coach calling for a timeout after the ninth series. Ulbrich kept fighting earning a tie in the 11th series but Rudrankksh closed it out clinically in the 12th and raised his arms in celebration.
