On the opening day of competition at the ISSF World Cup in Lima, Peru, China's Hu Kai and Suruchi Inder Singh from India won gold medals in the men's and women's 10m air pistol respectively, replicating their achievements in Buenos Aires.
Hu, who won gold in the event last week in Buenos Aires, showed he is the athlete to beat so far this season, winning the men's 10m air pistol so close to the world record. Once the Chinese found his groove, he moved ahead into a lead, far ahead of Varun Tomar of India and Brazil's Felipe Almeida Wu, who recovered from a poor opening set of shots to move into medal contention.
While they excelled, more established names such as Germany's Rio 2016 Olympic champion Christian Reitz and Paris 2024 gold medallist Xie Yu of China, struggled. Reitz would finish seventh ahead of Austria's Richard Zechmeister in eighth, while Xie would not recover from a difficult end to the first competition stage, finishing fifth, while Jason Solari of Switzerland was sixth.
Meanwhile, Hu, Wu and Tomar remained in medal contention with another Indian, Saurabh Chaudhary. In a close battle between the cousins of Tomar and Chaudhary, it was the latter who would add another medal to his impressive tally, now having 14 World Cup medals with another bronze.
For Wu, it was a popular Brazilian silver medal and his first individual one since 2016, but far behind eventual winner Hu with the scores finishing 241.0 to 246.4. Hu's total was just 0.1 away from Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Kim Song Guk, a world record that was set in Doha in 2019.
Suruchi held a commanding lead in the women's pistol event too, beating her Indian teammate Manu Bhaker to the gold by a total of 243.6 to 242.3. It was a case of too-little-too-late for Bhaker who was attempting to overhaul a large gap to her compatriot, but her consistent high scoring brought her above the other six athletes in the field.
The early exits came for Portugal's Filipa Marracho in eighth and Irina Yunusmetova from Kazakhstan in seventh. The field had effectively split in two by this stage as it looked increasingly likely that China and Hong Kong would depart next - which they did. Meng Yufei was fifth and Shing Ho Ching was sixth.
Uruguay was now within a chance of becoming a surprise package in the final as Julieta Mautone Jimenez and Yao Qianxun from China tussled for bronze. While Jimenez had edged ahead, two difficult shots accompanied by a 10.8 from Yao dropped her a point behind, heading into the decider for fourth. Unfortunately for Jimenez, that gap was just too large. However, fourth was a new best result for the 25-year-old. It became Yao's first individual World Cup medal.
While it became Bhaker's 15th World Cup medal, it's only Suruchi's third. Albeit, at the start of April, the 18-year-old had none. Aside from her Buenos Aires victory, she took bronze in the mixed team event.
You can find all results and information from the Lima ISSF World Cup
here.