Gold Coast: Star marksman Jitu Rai won gold with a masterful performance even as fellow shooters Om Mitharwal, Mehuli Ghosh and Apurvi Chandela boosted the Indian medals tally at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Monday.
Jitu stamped his class on the men’s 10m Air Pistol final, to post a wire-to-wire victory at the Belmont Shooting Centre. Jitu created a new CWG record of 235.1 in the final to win the gold. Kerry Bell of Australia took silver with 233.5.
This was Jitu’s second gold medal at the CWG. He had won the 50m title at the 2014 Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Om bagged the bronze for India with 214.3. Playing in his first CWG, Om performed brilliantly throughout the day, exiting after the 22nd shot of the 24-shot final.
Earlier, Om enjoyed a promising start to his campaign and emerged as the best shooter in the qualification stage.
He equalled the Commonwealth Games (CWG) qualification record on his way to booking a ticket to the final.
Om shot 584 in the qualifying round to equal the record set by fellow Indian Samaresh Jung at the 2006 CWG in Melbourne.