NEW DELHI: Young Simranpreet Kaur Brar held her nerve against a strong field to clinch the women’s 25m pistol gold, while Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar earned a silver in the men’s 50m rifle 3-position on his ISSF World Cup Final debut on Sunday.

World Championships silver-medallist in 25m rapid-fire pistol, Anish Bhanwala, also ended the year on a bright note with another second-place finish. India’s tally moved to six medals — two gold, three silver and one bronze.

With another solid day, India stayed second on the table behind China, who have three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

Simranpreet, whose father quit his government job to support her journey, delivered the biggest moment of her career by shooting 41 in the final, matching the World junior record.

Esha Singh was the other Indian in the eight-shooter final and finished seventh. Double Olympic bronze-medallist Manu Bhaker missed the cut after placing ninth with 581 in qualification.

In the qualifiers, the 21-year-old Simranpreet, who took silver at the Lima World Cup earlier this year, shot 585, while Esha matched that score to finish fifth and fourth and secure their final spots.

Simranpreet started slow, missing three targets in the first five-shot series to slip to eighth. She recovered quickly, firing three perfect 5s to surge past China’s 10m air pistol world champion Yao Qianxun, who finished a distant second with 36, and former world champion Doreen Vennekamp of Germany, who claimed bronze.

Aishwary excels in 50m rifle 3P

In the men’s 50m rifle 3-positions, Aishwary finished just 0.9 behind Czech shooter Jiri Privratsky, who topped the final with 414.2 under the new 40-shot ISSF format. Olympic champion Liu Yukun took bronze.

Aishwary, a double Olympian, former junior world champion and reigning Asian champion, recently won silver at the World Championship as well.

He shot 595 in qualification to place second behind China’s Tian Jiaming, who set a world record with 598.

Athlete of the Year Jon-Hermann Hegg and Hungary’s Istvan Peni were also in the top eight, along with three Chinese shooters.

Aishwary stood fourth with 102.8 after 10 kneeling shots. His strong prone series of 52.9 and 52 lifted him to second.

Privratsky continued to push ahead, leading by 3.3, with Liu in third as the match entered the 20-shot standing stage.

Aishwary then struck back over the next 10 shots, trimming the gap to 1.5 and later to 0.5 as Privratsky struggled to find the 10-ring.

With Peni and Tian exiting, Aishwary moved into the lead after the 33rd shot.

French shooter Romain Aufrere fell out in the bronze battle against Liu, while Privratsky regained his touch and edged 0.5 ahead after the 37th shot. Aishwary stayed close, the margin down to 0.3 entering the last two shots.

He hit a 10.1 to Privratsky’s 10.3, and then a 10.6, but the Czech answered with enough accuracy to seal gold, his third ISSF title of the year.

Anish makes a mark

Anish Bhanwala showed his trademark fight in the 25m rapid-fire pistol, surviving a tense shoot-off against world champion Clement Bessaguet to stay in the gold race.

But Paris Olympic champion Li Yuehong proved too strong, winning gold with 33 points. Bhanwala secured silver with 31, while Olympian Vijayveer Sidhu finished fourth behind Bessaguet.

(With PTI Inputs)