The 50m Pistol Men Final opened Day-2 of the 2016 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand. The match turned into a stage of success for India’s Jitu Rai, 28. The winner of the 2014 Asian Games, currently ranked 5th in the world in this event, shot consistently since the beginning of the round, and then peaked in the second half of the final, leaving few chances to his opponents.
Rai entered into the last two shots with a 4.5-point advantage on his closest follower, the 2008 air pistol Olympic Champion Pang Wei of the People’s Republic of China (29), and eventually sealed the victory with a sharp 10.0, finishing atop of the podium with a score of 191.3 points. Pang, who had never made it to the podium in 2015, took Silver with 186.5 points, while his teammate Wang Zhiwei, 27 - the Olympic Bronze medallist of London 2012 - claimed Bronze with 165.8 points.
Today’s victory, with such a large margin on those top-ranked finalists, places Jitu Rai atop of the favourites’ list on the road to Rio 2016.
The Indian shooter makes no secret about his aims. “The goal for the 2016 season is very clear: I want to win the Olympic Gold medal in Rio de Janeiro,” he said right after the final. “Given the amount of training and efforts I put in preparation of this competition, I was really confident before today’s match.”
