ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2019: India finishes top of medal tally with four medals

India has a total of five Olympic quotas now.

Abhishek Verma with the men's 10m air pistol gold, flanked by Artem Chernousov (L) and Han Seungwoo of Korea.

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

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

With that we come to the end of the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2019 in Beijing, China. Although, India did not manage to win any Olympic quota or medal on the final day, it did put up a decent show to clinch three golds and one silver in this World Cup, to finish at the top of the medal tally. Medal tally at the end of the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Beijing. More importantly, two more Olympic quotas were added to India's account. Divyansh Singh Panwar gifted the team a quota place after he finished second in the 10m Air Rifle on Friday. A day later, Asian Games bronze medallist Abhishek Verma joined the celebrations as he bagged a gold medal and Tokyo 2020 quota in the 10m Air Pistol event.   We will be back soon with the LIVE coverage of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup which starts at Changwon in Korea on May 7. Till then, goodbye! Keep following Sportstar for all the latest updates from your favourite sport.

RESULT - FINAL 50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN:

Croatia's Snjezana Pejcic, 37, bagged the 50m gold followed by Korea's Bae Sang Hee and Norway's Jeanette Hegg Duestad.

 

• 25m Pistol Women MQS Extra : Yashaswini Singh Deswal scores 573. Cut-off - 555

RESULT - FINAL 25M PISTOL WOMEN:

Olympian Maria Grozdeva clinched gold in the 25m Pistol event.

 

• End of the road for Gaayathri, Sunidhi and Kajal as well as they crash out of the 50m Air Rifle 3 Positions Qualification.
   
• Rahi Sarnobat bows out from the 25m Pistol event as well, finishing with 579 points. And with that, India's charge ends in this event.  
• Gaayathri leapfrogs quite a few to push up to the 19th spot after scoring 395 in 'Prone'. Sunidhi scores 391 in the same.  
• Kajal Saini is languishing at the bottom of the 50m Air Rifle 3 Positions leaderboard. She has just managed to score 766 off the first two positions.  
• Manu Bhaker and Chinki Yadav have been eliminated from the 25m Pistol event after shooting 291 and 286 in the Rapid Fire stage, respectively.  
• 50m Air Rifle 3 Positions Women: Gaayathri Nithyanadam and Sunidhi Chauhan, both finish with 390 points in 'Kneeling'.  
• Chinki Yadav finishes with 286 points in 25m Pistol Rapid Fire. Her rank is 52, as of now.  
• Gaayathri Nithyanadam gets off to a good start scoring a 99 and 97 off the first series of 'Kneeling' in 50m Rifle 3 Positions.  

The following Indians will be in action today:

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women: Kajal Saini, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Gaayathri Nithyanadam.

2 5m Pistol Women: Chinki Yadav, Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat and Yashaswini Singh Deswal (MQS)  

Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat (288) and Chinki Yadav (284) were not that well placed on Saturday, but a lot would depend on the performance of the shooters in the rapid-fire section today. The top eight will qualify for the final.

The three girls in the main team, Gaayathri Nithyanandam (1167), Sunidhi Chauhan (1156) and Kajal Saini (1157), aspiring to win the Olympic quota in 50m Rifle 3 positions, came through the elimination round to make the qualification stage.  

Highlights of Day 5: The shooting range in Beijing continues to be a favourite hunting ground for India. At the place where Abhinav Bindra had won the country’s only individual Olympic gold in 2008, the Indian shooters were busy collecting more Olympic quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Games. Close on the heels of the young  Divyansh Singh Panwar  winning the silver and Olympic quota in men’s air rifle, lawyer  Abhishek Verma  did better by clinching the men’s air pistol Olympic quota with the gold medal. READ |  Gomathi Marimuthu's tale of struggle to athletics glory India thus climbed to the top of the medals table with three gold and one silver, ahead of host China which has two gold, two silver and a bronze. The  Asian Games  bronze medallist came up with a dominant fare in the air pistol final, as he led from start to finish in winning the gold with a 2.3 points margin over Artem Chernousov of Russia. Abhishek had qualified in the fourth place with the second best score of 585 out of 600, in a highly competitive field of 97 shooters. It was a big jump from the 24th place in the World Cup in Delhi in February when , the 29-year-old shot 576. He had stepped it up in the Asian Air Gun Championship later with a silver medal, even though a qualification score of 577 was nothing much to crow about. Apart from winning the Asian Games bronze medal on debut last year, Abhishek had also made it to the World Championship final with a score of 583, but had finished eighth and missed the Olympic quota then. Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary  and Divyansh Singh Panwar were the others to win the Olympic quota earlier. Two other Indian shooters,  Shahzar Rizvi  (576), who had won a gold and a silver medal in the World Cups last year, and the World junior champion  Arjun Singh Cheema  (571) were not at their best this day. It did not matter, as India could win only two Olympic quota places in the event, which were secured by Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma. Incidentally, Saurabh was competing in the MQS section, as the national federation had opted to keep him out of the main team in an attempt to help others secure the second Olympic quota in the event. Saurabh shot 580, following a series of 96, 94, 97, 98, 99 and 96. In women’s 25-metre sports pistol,  Manu Bhaker  had shot 291 in the precision stage to be in the 14th place, four points behind the leaders Monika Karsch of Germany and Anna Korakaki of Greece, the World and Olympic champion. Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat (288) and Chinki Yadav (284) were not that well placed, but a lot would depend on the performance of the shooters in the rapid-fire section on the morrow. The top eight will qualify for the final. Meanwhile, world record holder Anjum Moudgil, competing in the MQS section in the women’s rifle 3-position event, put together a total of 1163, following 394 each in kneeling and prone, apart from 375 in standing. The three girls in the main team, Gaayathri Nithyanandam (1167), Sunidhi Chauhan (1156) and Kajal Saini (1157), aspiring to win the Olympic quota, came through the elimination round to make the qualification stage.

 

Here is a rundown of Sunday's events:

Time (in IST)	Event
06:30 AM - 09:00 AM	5m Pistol Women Rapid Fire Stage
06:30 AM - 09:15 AM	50m Rifle 3 Positions Women
10:00 AM	Final 2 5m Pistol Women
11:30 AM	Final

 

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!