The reigning World Champion in air rifle Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil has been included in the team for the Asian Games, but was overtaken for selection in the team for the World Championship to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced the rifle and pistol teams for the World Championships and Asian Games on Saturday, after the conclusion of the selection trials.
There will be only three changes to the teams for Asian Games from the one competing in the World Championship. They all will be in rifle events. Rudrankksh comes in place of Hriday Hazarika, while Ashi Chouksey will replace Tilottama Sen.
For the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, a country can name only five men and women rifle shooters, while World Championship has no such restrictions.
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Olympic quota winner Swapnil Kusale will not compete in World Championship despite figuring in the No.2 rank, as the chance would be given for other shooters to try and win the second Olympic quota in the event. Thus Niraj Kumar steps in as the third shooter for the World Championship behind Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Akhil Sheoran. Swapnil will compete in Asian Games.
The team for World Championship:
BREAKDOWN OF THE SELECTION TRIALS:
With best four of the last five scores being taken into consideration in arriving at the ranking of the shooters in contention, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Hriday Hazarika (631.93) have sealed their spots in the team, ahead of Arjun Babuta (631.88) and Rudrankksh (631.55).
In women’s air rifle, Ramita JIndal, Mehuli Ghosh and Tilottama Sen are the top three, while Olympian and former World No.1 Elavenil Valarivan has slipped to the sixth spot with 630.75, just about a point behind Tilottama.
Anjum Moudgil had spoken about hoping to peak at the World Championships, however she missed out on a spot in the team headed to Baku.
Olympian and former World Championship silver medallist, Anjum Moudgil has placed seventh in women’s rifle 3-position event with 583.88. While Sift Kaur Samra has been dominant with an average of 590.88, Ashish Chouksey (586.28) and Manini Kaushik (585.63) have pulled through decimally ahead of Shriyanka Sadangi and Ayushi Podder.
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In fact, Shriyanka has placed fourth in both rifle 3-position and air rifle events, when top-three get the nod.
In men’s rifle 3-position event, Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Olympic quota winner Swapnil Kusale and Akhil Sheoran have made the cut. Olympians Chain Singh, Deepak Kumar and Sanjeev Rajput placed fifth, eighth and 16th in the averages.
Aishwary is the only shooter among men to make two events. The honour goes to Esha Singh in women’s air pistol and sports pistol.
Divya TS, Esha and Palak Gulia are the top three in women’s air pistol. Rhythm Sangwan and Manu Bhaker placed sixth and ninth in the averages.
Both Rhythm and Manu, along with Esha make the 25-metre sports pistol team. Multiple World Cup gold medallist and the Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat has been battling ill health and thus had slipped to eighth in the averages, despite some heroics in the selection trials.
In men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol, Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh figure as the top three, while Olympian Gurpreet Singh and Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar placed sixth and seventh, respectively.
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In men’s air pistol, Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal and Arjun Singh Cheema are in the top three. Former World No.1, World Cup gold medallists and Asian Games medallists, Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma placed eighth and 14th respectively.
Olympic quota winner in trap Bhowneesh Mendiratta and the World Cup gold medallist Mairaj Ahmad Khan failed to find favour for not figuring among the top three in the selection rankings in trap and skeet.
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