The mixed team events granted medal status at an ISSF World Cup Final for the first time.
Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu combined to give India their first gold medal of the ISSF World Cup Final here. Thy clinching the top honours in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on the opening day of competitions.
The mixed team competitions were organised as test events in the World Cups held earlier this year. They will be making their Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Jitu and Heena shot 483.4 points after 48 shots in the final round to finish on top after beginning with a 2.5-point disadvantage from the lead after the first series of five shots.
France’s Florian Fouquet and Celine Goberville took silver with 481.1. The bronze went to Yang Wei and Cai Xiaoxue of China with 418.2. Jitu shot 10.9s on his 15th and 17th individual shots, smoothening the path to victory.
“There were high expectations on us and a lot of eyes were looking at me and Jitu for this final, that’s why we trained a lot together in the last days.”
“We like this format, it’s a bit longer than the other ones we tried, but we like definitely like it,” added Rai, who previously won two medals during the ISSF World Cup Stage 1 that took place in New Delhi last February and March.