India shooters end proceedings at Osijek with below-par show

The 14-member Indian shooting contingent comprising of 13 athletes of the Tokyo 2020 Rifle and Pistol squad and a lone Men’s Skeet shooter, wrapped up their engagements at the year’s final International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup stage in Osijek, Croatia, after Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini Sawant finished fifth in the 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P) Mixed Team event on Tuesday, thereby missing out on a shot at a medal.

India finished at their overnight tally of one gold, one silver and two bronze medals to be placed seventh on the medals tally with three more competition days to go.

Rahi Sarnobat had claimed the gold in the Women’s 25M Pistol on Monday in sensational fashion, while India also won a silver and a bronze in two other Olympic events- the 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team and 10M Air Pistol Men’s events respectively. Saurabh Chaudhary being involved in both those events, pairing up with Manu Bhaker in the Mixed event.

India also won another bronze in the non-Olympic 10M Air Pistol Women’s Team event through Rahi Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Deswal. Three Indian athletes- Rahi, Manu and Saurabh won two medals each for the country.

India were only entered in the 3P Mixed event on Tuesday through two pairs- Anjum Moudgil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar making up the second along with Tejaswini and Sanjeev.

Sanjeev and Tejaswini made it to the second qualifying stage of eight teams, but then missed out on a shot at bronze on account of being one inner 10 less than Hungary who finished fourth on an equal score of 581, but had 29 inner 10s to India’s 28.

Anjum and Aishwary were placed ninth at the first qualifying stage, losing out to their compatriots on inner 10s as well.

Late on Monday, the Women’s 3P individual finals were also played out and won by Russia’s Yulia Karimova. India’s Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil had finished 20^th and 32^nd respectively in that event.

Russia have been leading the charts with seven golds so far in the final top level shooting competition before the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, which has eventually seen participation from over 600 athletes from 61 countries.

The Indian Rifle and Pistol squad have been in Croatia for over two months now on a training cum competition trip, before they embark upon Tokyo in the third week of July. Two Men’s Skeet Shooters, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa will also join them and are presently training in Italy.

Performance Details- Osijek ISSF World Cup

O- Olympic event*

Rifle

 – 10M Air Rifle Men (O)- Aishwary Tomar 7^th

 – 50M Rifle 3 Positions Men (O)- Aishwary Tomar 6^th, Sanjeev Rajput 17^th

 – 10M Air Rifle Women (O)- Apurvi Chandela 24^th, Anjum Moudgil 42^nd, Elavenil Valarivan 55^th

– 50M Rifle 3 Positions Women (O)- Tejaswini Sawant 20^th, Anjum Moudgil 32^nd

– 10M Air Rifle Mixed Team (O)- Ela/Divyansh 6^th, Anjum/Deepak 15^th

– 10M Air Rifle Team Men- Divyansh/Deepak/Aishwary 4^th

– 10M Air Rifle Team Women- Apurvi/Anjum/Ela 11^th

– 50M Rifle 3 Positions Mixed Team- Tejaswini/Sanjeev 5^th, Anjum/Aishwary 9^th

Pistol

– 10M Air Pistol Men (O)- Saurabh 3^rd, Abhishek 5^th

– 10M Air Pistol Women (O)- Manu 7^th, Yashaswini 8^th

– 25M Pistol Women (O)- Rahi 1^st, Manu 7^th

– 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team (O)- Manu/Saurabh 2^nd, Yashaswini/Abhishek 4^th

– 10M Air Pistol Team Women- Manu/Yashaswini/Rahi 3^rd