Anish Bhanwala Shoots His Way to World Championship Silver

New Delhi — Olympian Anish Bhanwala showcased nerves of steel as he battled through four intense shoot-offs to win the silver medal—his first-ever individual medal at the senior level—on the second day of the ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol in Cairo.

The 23-year-old Indian shooter displayed remarkable composure, especially in the penultimate round, where he outlasted Maksym Horodynets of Ukraine in a double shoot-off to reach the gold medal match. Ultimately, Clement Bessaguet of France claimed the top podium finish, upgrading his consecutive silver medals from previous editions to gold. Earlier, Anish had also edged out Emanuel Mueller of Germany in another double shoot-off to secure his place among the final contenders.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling—it’s completely unreal,” said a thrilled Anish in his post-match interview with ISSF. “I’ve come close several times before. My training went well, but I couldn’t perform when it mattered. This time I was better prepared, and everything clicked.”

Anish has also qualified for the World Cup Final in Doha next month, marking another milestone in his shooting career.

Earlier, he had entered the six-man final in second position with an impressive qualifying score of 585-22x over two days. He began the finals strongly with a perfect series, followed by two rounds of four hits each. At the first elimination, he comfortably stood at 16 hits. Adding six more in the next two rounds, he was pushed into a tense shoot-off with Mueller, where he prevailed by hitting four targets in the deciding round.

In the seventh series, he matched Horodynets’s score, forcing yet another shoot-off. Both hit four in the first round, but in the second, Anish held his nerve as the Ukrainian managed only two, confirming at least a silver medal for India.

In the final series for gold, Anish needed a flawless set to overtake Bessaguet, who had already scored 29. However, with three hits, Anish had to settle for silver as the French shooter sealed his well-deserved victory.

Elsewhere, India’s Air Rifle mixed teams narrowly missed out on medal contention. The pair of Arjun Babuta and Elavenil Valarivan finished eighth with a combined total of 632.3, just 1.6 points short of the top four. The second Indian duo, Rudrankksh Patil and Shreya Agrawal, placed 21st with 628.8 points.

India’s top pistol shooters — Suruchi Singh, Manu Bhaker, and Esha Singh — will take aim on Monday in the 10m Pistol event.

With inputs from IANS