ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2019: Saurabh-Bhaker, Moudgil-Divyansh strike gold in mixed team events

While Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar struck gold with a score of 20.6 off the last shot, Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary bagged gold with a scoreline of 16-6.

Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar bag the gold medal with a score of 20.6 off the last shot, after finishing sixth in the qualification round.

Good morning! Hello and welcome to the highlights of the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2019 in Beijing, China.

The mixed air rifle and air pistol finals today, gave a chance for the Indian shooters to be better prepared for the new Olympic event, even though there was no Olympic quotas on offer.

========================================================

 

• ANOTHER GOLD FOR INDIA! Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary bag gold in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Final finishing with a score of 16-6.
  
   
   
• 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Final: Time for another gold medal match! It is Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker vs Jiang Ranxin and Pang Wei.
   
• 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team: While Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary finish fifth with 482 points, Heena Sidhu and Rizvi Shahzar manage to find the 12th spot.
  
  
  

  Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary finished fifth with 482 points.
  
  
  

  Heena Sidhu and Rizvi Shahzar managed to find the 12th spot.
  
   
• 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team: Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary score 482 to stay sixth on the qualification table. Heena Sidhu and Shahzar Rizvi have shot a first series score of 191.
   
• Good news! Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar bag the gold medal with a score of 20.6 off the last shot.

Dear readers,

There was a bit of information gap. The ISSF official website, which has been non-responsive for a while, showed that the top five teams qualified as is customary.

The 10m Air Rifle Qualification result and Finals start list as shown on the website.

 

However, eight teams made it to a quarterfinal round, from where we had semis and then the finals:

The new ISSF 10m Air Rifle event format.

 

(Courtesy: ISSF Youtube handle)

• Adarsh Singh and Arpit Goel finish with scores of 290 and 288 respectively in the second round of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Qualification event.
   
• First round of Stage 1 of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol MQS extra ends with Bhavesh Shekhawat finishing fifth with 279 points.
   
• At the end of 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Relay 2, India's Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar have managed to qualify for the finals, finishing fifth on the leaderboard, even as Moudgil and Divyansh just failed to make the cut, finishing as the sixth team on the table.
   
• After 50 shots, Apurvi and Deepak have finally managed to displace Moudgil and Divyansh with a score of 522.8.
  
  However, second on the table, Moudgil and Divyansh are just 0.1 points behind.
   
• Anish Bhanwal, too, is faring well at the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Qualification event. Fourth on the leaderboard now, he has a score of 289 after the first stage. China's Cheng Zhipeng topped the stage with 293.
  
  Arpit Goel and Adarsh Singh will be up and ready to fire in the second round.
   
• 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Qualification: What a brilliant start to the day! Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar are setting fire at the shooting range in Beijing. They are right at the top with a score of 417.7 after the first two series.
  
  Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar closely follow as they stand second with a total of 416.9 after the first two series.

The following Indians will be in action today:

10m Air Rifle Mixed Team: Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar, Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team: Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary, Heena Sidhu and Shahzar Rizvi

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men: Anish Bhanwala, Arpit Goel, Adarsh Singh and Bhavesh Shekhawat (MQS)

 

 

Here is a rundown of Thursday's events:

 

A look at how things stood ahead of the Beijing World Cup:

A 28-member Indian team will aim to add to the three Olympic quota places won so far, in the World Cup starting in Beijing on Tuesday.

The young  Saurabh Chaudhary  -- the Asian Games air pistol champion, Youth Olympics champion and the World Junior champion -- was the only one to win the Olympic quota in the World Cup at home in February.

Anjum Moudgil  and  Apurvi Chandela  had won the quota in women’s air rifle in the World Championship last year.

The opening day’s competition will feature women’s air rifle, which would only add to the competitive exposure for Anjum, Apurvi,  Elavenil Valarivan,  and the MQS shooter Mehuli Ghosh, as a country cannot win more than two Olympic quota in any event.

READ:  Olympic quotas reallocated to World Cups in Beijing, Munich

The focus from the Indian perspective will thus be on Wednesday, when there will be women’s air pistol and men’s 50-metre rifle 3-position finals.

Manu Bhaker will be the one to watch, as the 12th standard student is No.1 in both air pistol and the 25-metre sports pistol. With two-time Olympian and former World record holder Heena Sidhu, apart from Yashaswini Deswal in the line up, India has a realistic chance of striking it hot in women’s air pistol.

Olympians  Sanjeev Rajput  and  Chain Singh  apart from  Parul Kumar  will attempt to make the rifle 3-position event memorable.

The mixed air rifle and air pistol finals will be held on Thursday, giving a chance for the Indian shooters to be better prepared for the new Olympic event, even though there will be no Olympic quota available.

Ravi Kumar, Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar will be in line to win the Olympic quota place in men’s air rifle, on Friday.

More significantly, the 25-metre rapid fire pistol shooters will have a better chance for Olympic quota as three will be on offer, unlike two in all other events.

It may be recalled that the rapid fire pistol quota places were withheld in the Delhi World Cup, as visa for two Pakistani rapid fire pistol shooters had been denied. Those two quota places will be given one each additionally in the Beijing and Munich World Cups.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anish Bhanwala, along with Arpit Goel and Adarsh Singh will fight for the quota places in rapid fire.

In men’s air pistol, in which Saurabh Chaudhary will be fielded in the MQS event to enhance the chances of a second Indian winning the Olympic quota, the onus will be on World Cup gold medallist Shahzar Rizvi, Asian Games bronze medallist Abhishek Verma and World Junior champion Arjun Singh Cheema to capitalise on the opportunity.

The World Cup will close with the finals in women’s 25-metre sports pistol and the 50-metre rifle 3-position events on Sunday. Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat, apart from Manu Bhaker and Chinki Yadav will be competing in the pistol event.

Gaayathri Nithyanandam, Sunidhi Chauhan and Kajal Saini will try to prove that it is a fair decision to field the World record holder Anjum Moudgil in the MQS section in the event, so as to help the team strike further Olympic quota.

The presence of a battery of coaches, Samaresh Jung, Ved Prakash, Pavel Smirnov, Randhir Singh, Manoj Kumar, Oleg Mikhailov, Deepali Deshpande, Jaspal Rana and Suma Shirur would mean that it will be difficult to blame the absence of coaches for unsatisfactory performance!