Rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant won the gold in the 50 metre rifle prone event at the World Championships currently being held at Munich on Sunday.
The 30-year-old from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, thus became the first Indian woman to win a gold in a shooting event, and indeed one of the very few Indian women to bag a gold in any international sporting contest.
Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and trap shooter Manavjit Singh are the only other shooters to have bagged golds in the same competition — at Zagreb, Croatia in 2006.
Sawant, whose score equalled the world record in her event, was, however, given a tough fight by Poland’s Ewa Nowakowska, with both of them finally tying at 597/600, but Sawant was declared winner on the basis of more ‘inner 10s’ (hitting the bulls eye more frequently).
“I am very happy. I just can’t describe my feelings,” said Sawant after her victory.