ISSF World Championship, Cairo 2022 HIGHLIGHTS: Moudgil falls 1.4 points short of the Olympic quota, finishes sixth

ISSF World Championship 2022: Catch the action, commentary, highlights, updates and more from the first Paris 2024 quota-bearing competition for rifle and pistol events in Cairo.

Updated : Oct 21, 2022 18:02 IST

FILE PHOTO: Anjum Moudgil at the 62nd National Shooting Championships in Thiruvananthapuram.
FILE PHOTO: Anjum Moudgil at the 62nd National Shooting Championships in Thiruvananthapuram. | Photo Credit: MAHINSHA S
infoIcon

FILE PHOTO: Anjum Moudgil at the 62nd National Shooting Championships in Thiruvananthapuram. | Photo Credit: MAHINSHA S

Highlights
  • Anjum Moudgil qualified for the 50m rifle 3 positions final with a score of 587-31x. Ashi Chouksey and Sift Kaur Samra stand eliminated.
  • All three Indians in contention in 25m pistol find themselves in the top 10 ahead of tomorrow’s Rapid Fire stage. Rhythm Sangwan is at the top of the leaderboard.
  • Moudgil missed out on an Olympic quota by a mere 1.4 points.

Welcome to the highlights of the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship 2022 in Cairo, Egypt. This was Santadeep Dey, bringing you all the action.

HIGHLIGHTS

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 2

  • Two 97s from Kusale sees the Maharashtrian finish third in the relay. Norwegian Jon-Hermann Hegg top scores with 592.
  • The Prone round is over. With a 99 and 98, Kusale jumps to the sixth position. The six-minute changeover time begins.
  • Off to a confident start, is Kusale - 98 and 99 in Kneeling. He is currently fifth in this relay.
  • Kusale starts the Kneeling round with a 10.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 1

  • Niraj’s last series is a low 92. He slips to 21st in the ongoing relay.
  • Aishwary records 194 (98, 96) in Standing. His total score is 585.

FINAL 50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • China’s Wanru Miao wins the World Championship gold, beating Stene 17-13. Both of them win Olympic quotas. Stene bursts into happy tears and goes on a hugging spree as her teammates surround her to celebrate the medal finish.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 1

  • Niraj registers 197 in Prone. He is 15th.

FINAL 50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • Maddalena wins the second quota with a fourth-place finish. Duestad takes bronze. Somehow, Stene has moved to the very top and will play the gold medal match against China’s Wanru Miao.
  • World No. 7 Moudgil finishes sixth and just outside the Olympic quota zone. Korea’s Eunseo Lee, fifth, and 1.4 ahead of the Indian shooter gets the Paris 2024 quota as there are two Norwegians in the mix ahead.
  • What just happened?! Nadine Ungerank, with a shocking 7.5, finishes eighth. She had been holding on to the seventh place till the last shot. Oyunbat finishes seventh.
  • Moudgil just moves past the drop zone. She needs to shoot a few high-10s to avoid getting eliminated.
  • Maddalena has slowly crept her way up to the top. She jumps 0.1 points ahead of Duestad.
  • Moudgil starts with an 8.8! Ouch... that must hurt. However, that 2.8-point cushion helps her keep her place.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 1

  • Aishwary gets a 97 followed by 96 in Prone. Not exactly the best of scores and, unsurprisingly, he slips to 18th.

FINAL 50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • After prone, Moudgil is seventh with 205.2. Stene is 0.3 ahead. Oyunbat has fallen behind by 2.8 points. Time for the final changeover.
  • Two 10.8s followed by a 10.7. Way to go! Moudgil has moved ahead of Oyunbat and into the sixth place. Jenny Stene has dropped to seventh.
  • 10.1 to start off in Prone for Moudgil. That only hampers her chances further as Oyunbat hits a 10.6.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 1

  • Niraj registers identical scores in Kneeling but places four ranks ahead of Aishwary, courtesy of more inner-10s.

FINAL 50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • The changeover time begins.
  • Moudgil’s total reads 100.1 after Kneeling. Yesugen Oyunbat of Mongolia is only 0.1 ahead.
  • Moudgil’s 50.2 in the first series of Kneeling takes her to sixth place. Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway leads with 52.8.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS MEN STAGE 1 RELAY 1

  • Aishwary and Niraj have been fielded in the first relay. The Olympian shoots two quick series in Kneeling to register a 97 followed by a 98. Niraj starts with a 97.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale and Niraj Kumar will be fighting for an Olympic quota and a medal for India in this event.

25M PISTOL WOMEN

  • All three Indians in contention in 25m pistol find themselves in the top 10 ahead of tomorrow’s Rapid Fire stage. Rhythm is at the very top with a score of 295, Bhaker’s 292 ensures a fifth place and Patil with 291 is ninth.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

Anjum Moudgil’s target map.
Anjum Moudgil’s target map.
lightbox-info

Anjum Moudgil’s target map.

  • With a 191 in Standing, Moudgil qualifies for the final which starts at 2:15pm IST. Chouksey scores 190 (95, 95), places 33rd. Sift has had a horrid outing, finishing 53rd with 189 in the Standing round.

25M PISTOL WOMEN

  • Rhythm dominating the range! A 99 in the second series as well. She is at the very top of the standings now. Patil isn’t far off, with two 98s.
  • Rhythm and Patil both start with five perfect shots in the second series of the Precision leg.
  • The second relay starts. Rhythm off the blocks with a 99. 98 for Patil.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • Not a good day, this, for Sift. Her Prone score of 197 finds her outside the top 50.
  • Another 100 for the Olympian. She moves up to seventh with a 200/200 in Prone.
  • Moudgil’s first series in Prone is a 100. She is 12th. Chouksey registers 97.
  • The Prone event is underway. Chouksey is the first Indian to get started.

25M PISTOL WOMEN

FILE PHOTO: Manu Bhaker at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
FILE PHOTO: Manu Bhaker at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. | Photo Credit: MARCELO ENDELLI
lightbox-info

FILE PHOTO: Manu Bhaker at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. | Photo Credit: MARCELO ENDELLI

  • A 98 off the last ‘Precision’ series means Manu stays top with 292. China’s Chen Yan is a close second for now with 291. Having started off with two 98s, she faltered in the last series to lose five points. The rapid fire stage is scheduled to happen tomorrow.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • Moudgil falls out of the top 10 with a 96. Chouksey registers a 99. 94 for National Games gold medallist Sift. Time for the changeover.

25M PISTOL WOMEN

  • The second series begins and Manu, once again, starts off with five 10s. Scores 48 off the next five.

50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN

  • Anjum Moudgil gets things rolling with a 100 in the first series of kneeling. 97s for Ashi Chouksey and Sift Kaur Samra.

25M PISTOL WOMEN

  • Zavala Vazquez finishes on a high as well. Doesn’t let go off the top spot, as she finishes with a 99 in the first series. Bhaker, on the other hand, with a 96 in the first series, slips to sixth place.
  • Bhaker starts in the first relay. She doesn’t drop a single point in the first five competition shots of the precision stage. Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala Vazquez also starts off with a 50.

Manu Bhaker (Bib No. 1582), Rhythm Sangwan (Bib No. 1625) and Abhidnya Ashok Patil (Bib No. 1616) will take to the range in women’s 25m pistol.

TODAY’S SCHEDULE IN IST (Senior quota-bearing events only)

11:30am-2pm: 25m pistol women

11:45am-1pm: 50m rifle 3 positions women

2pm-3:30pm: 50m rifle 3 positions men stage 1 relay 1

2:15pm: Final 50m rifle 3 positions women

4:30pm-6pm: 50m rifle 3 positions men stage 1 relay 2

The NRAI recently made a few tweaks in its Olympic qualification policy. Tap on the link in the box below to find out more about it.

PREVIEW

Olympians Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anjum Moudgil and Vijay Kumar headline the list of 22 senior Indian athletes eligible for a Paris Olympics 2024 quota at the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Championship, starting October 12 in Cairo.

Contemporaries Vijayveer Sidhu and Rhythm Sangwan will feature in two individual events each and hence are the only shooters who will have two shots at the quota places.

A total of 32 Olympic quotas will be on offer in the Egyptian capital. Of these, eight quotas – four in men and as many in women’s disciplines – will be in each 10m air rifle, 50m rifle 3 positions, and 10m air pistol. There will also be eight quotas up for equal distribution between participants in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol and women’s 25m sports pistol.

In the ongoing Olympic cycle – which started on August 14 this year and will conclude on June 9, 2024 – 32 berths in the Paris 2024 bus have already been taken via competitions. Only one of these has been won by India, thus far, with Bhowneesh Mendiratta finishing fourth in men’s trap at the recently concluded Shotgun Worlds in Osijek.

There are 340 Paris Olympic quotas assigned to the world body of shooting by the International Olympic Committee. While 300 of these are rewarded through competitions, the remaining are distributed to the host (12), Universality place holders (16) and the highest-ranked athletes in each discipline during the Olympic qualification period (12).

With each National Olympic Committee allowed 24 quotas (12 for men and 12 for women) across all events, there is much to fight for.

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Arjun Babuta are favourites to lay hands on India's first rifle quota on October 14. Babuta, currently ranked No. 1 in the country, gave a glimpse of exemplary mental strength after finishing with a silver medal in the 36th National Games in Gujarat, despite just managing to squeeze through to the eight-man final earlier. Patil was the gold medallist at the event.

Among women, all eyes will be on Mehuli Ghosh, who has, in 2022, started training at Gagan Narang’s Gun for Glory, having moved over from the Joydeep Karmakar Shooting Academy. Her coach Bibaswan Ganguly is confident of her chances, the shooter having maintained the best average score of 629.58 among all 10m rifle wielders in NRAI’s Stage 2 and Stage 3 competitions, which concluded with the sixth selection trials in August.

Meanwhile, Vijayveer will be India’s best bet to return home with a pistol quota. Participating in both 10m air and 25m rapid fire pistol, the Punjab lad is on a hot streak, having won both the 10m air pistol events (individual and mixed) at NGG 2022. The individual round would serve as more of a confidence booster, with him having scored an emphatic 17-5 win over Shiva Narwal. He had missed the 25m rapid fire event as he had to appear for an examination.

With Bhaker suffering from a poor run of form and Esha Singh in the junior team, Rhythm emerges as the strongest contender for a pistol quota among women. The Haryana shooter was consistent with her performances in Gujarat 2022, winning three medals in 10m air pistol (silver in individual and bronze in mixed team) and 25m sports pistol (silver).

The contest in 50m 3P is tighter, and it will all depend on who can keep their calm on the day of the competition.

- Santadeep Dey

WHERE TO WATCH ISSF SHOOTING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP?

A few finals will be available for live streaming on Olympics’ official YouTube channel.

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment