After winning three medals in the ISSF World Cups in Munich and Slovenia recently, in-form Indian shooter Jitu Rai today achieved the world's number one ranking in air pistol event.
The 27-year-old armyman from Lucknow is the seventh Indian shooter to have achieved this feat.
Anjali Bhagwat, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Gagan Narang, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ronjon Sodhi and Heena Sidhu are the others to have claimed the numero uno position in their respective events.
"Jitu Rai has been ranked number one shooter in air pistol event in the world ranking. The ISSF has released the world ranking of shooters in various events today and Jitu Rai was declared the number one shooter," the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said in a statement.
Rai followed up his silver with a historic gold in the men's air pistol event earlier this month in the ISSF World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia.
It was the first time an Indian shooter won two medals in a World Cup championship.
Rai, who missed the free pistol gold by 0.1 point and had to settle for silver, shot 200.8 in the final round of the air pistol event to clinch the gold medal.
Before that, he had won a silver medal in the ISSF World Cup in Munich.
The president of NRAI, Raninder Singh, expressed happiness over Rai's achievement and hoped more and more shooters would follow suit.
