With Munich gold, Suruchi Phogat announces intent to dominate 10 m air pistol

While Bhaker’s compatriot had edged her out for a gold at the Lima World Cup, Phogat won her third successive ISSF World Cup title in a final field consisting of Paris Olympics 25m pistol silver medallist Camille Jedrzejewski of France and three Chinese shooters including Tokyo Olympics mixed team gold medallist and individual bronze medallist Jiang Ranxin. Behind the mic, Bhaker would shower praise on the 19-year-old’s resolve.

Suruchi Phogat after winning her third successive ISSF World Cup title in women’s 10m air pistol event in Munich on Thursday. (ISSF)

Even though, Phogat’s scores dipped into high 9s at the fag end of the final, the Haryana shooter would push Jedrzejewski to the second spot in the last elimination shot to win her third successive gold medal.

“I only got to know about Camille Jedrzejewski being an Olympic medallist when her name was announced. This third successive gold medal is the toughest of all as it was a high and low final for me and taught me a lot of things. Things did not work my way midway in the final. I guess my hands were a bit tired and shots were going bad. But then I had to make some trigger adjustments and I am glad to win this title here at Munich,” shared the youngster from Sisroli village in Jhajjar district while speaking with The Indian Express.

If her first senior World Cup title came in the presence of Ranxin, she won gold at Munich, the biggest event, by edging out another Chinese, Wei Qian. Phogat’s second World Cup title at Lima had come with her edging out Bhaker for the gold.

On Thursday, the youngster who had qualified at the second spot with a score of 588 in qualification, shot a first series of 52.1 to build a 2.2 point lead over the second placed Jedrzejewski. But with her seventh shot of the final coming as a 9.0, Phogat would see herself shifting between the top place and the second and third and occasionally fourth place over the next few shots.

While others too struggled with their shots, Phogat had seven scores of 10 or above including a 10.8 and a 10.7, and seven shots below ten in the two-shot elimination series including the gold medal elimination series. “Suruchi shoots fast in the final and never takes pressure of the first series. And the lead of 2.2 after the first series helped her in the end. I guess she delayed some shots a bit but then she never went into the lower 8s. During practice, we often practice different tasks like low score situations after first series high scores and I am glad she could win the gold in Munich,” says coach Suresh Singh, her personal coach.

Suruchi Phogat after winning her third successive ISSF World Cup title in women’s 10m air pistol event in Munich on Thursday. (ISSF)

Across three finals, Phogat shot 29 times above ten and only two below 9.5 and no shots below 9. With Yao being eliminated for the bronze medal, Phogat was trailing Jedrzejewski by 0.5 point. A 10.5 by Phogat was followed by 9.5 from Jedrzejewski. Having a slim lead of 0.5 points, Phogat would shoot a last shot of 9.5 before Jedrzejewski shot a 9.8 handing the Indian her third gold.

Indian chief pistol coach Samresh Jung told The Indian Express, “It’s great. Good for Suruchi and good for her confidence. Finals could have been better but then things like this happen. Shooters have to go through every phase and it would have taught her a lot of things. Second series, she only had one bad shot and did not drop much in terms of other four shots and the same with the elimination shots.”

The Haryana youngster would also become the first Indian shooter to win three consecutive World Cup gold medals. Earlier this week, Chinese shooters Wang Zifei, Hu Kai and Sun Yujie won their third successive World Cup titles in women’s 10m air rifle, men’s 10m air pistol and women’s 25m Pistol events respectively.

Phogat did not watch those finals where the Chinese triumphed but would joke with pistol coach Jay Wardhan Singh Chouhan about the three Chinese being ‘scared.’ “We could see the Chinese were discussing Suruchi. Thoda darre toh honge. The way Sun Yujie has dominated the 25m pistol this year, Suruchi has done the same in the 10m air pistol,” said national coach, Chouhan.