ISSF World Championship Highlights, Cairo 2022: Rudrankksh wins Paris 2024 Olympics quota, no Indian women qualify for 10m AR final

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.

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Arjun Babuta (left) will be in action at the ISSF World Championship in Cairo. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Highlights

• Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil has won the Olympic quota, beating Italy’s Danilo Dennis Sollazzo in the World Championship gold medal match.
• No Indian women qualified for the 10m air rifle final. Mehuli Ghosh (10th, 629.7) is the best-placed after two relays of qualification.

Welcome to Sportstar’s coverage of the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship 2022 in Cairo, Egypt. This is Santadeep Dey, bringing you the action.

COMMENTARY

Women’s 10m Air Rifle finals

Gold and Paris 2024 quota: (USA) Alison Marie Weisz 16 (261.3), Silver and Paris 2024 quota (CHN) Yuting Huang 14 (264.5), Bronze (CHN) Yu Zhang 260.1

The final eight who have qualified for the women’s ranking match in 10m air rifle -

10m air rifle women finalists.

10M AIR RIFLE WOMEN RELAY 2

• None of the women shooters make it to the ranking round. Mehuli (10th, 629.7) is the best-placed Indian. Meghana (629.2, 13th) bounced back in a massive way but her scores in the initial series held her back. Elavenil (19th, 628.7) has a tournament to forget and move on.
• Elavenil shoots a 105.5 in the last series. With a total score of 628.7 her final ranking is expected to be between 20-25.
• A 105.3 and 105.4 in the fourth and fifth series from Elavenil. She is 33rd.
• A 104.8 followed by a 106.8 sees Meghana leapfrog Elavenil to take the 22nd place. A little too late now?
• Elavenil with a 104.9. Things don’t look good. And it only gets worse with a 103.0 in the third series.
• Meghana registers a poor 102.1 in the first series.
• Elavenil finishes the first series with 104.6. She is 48th on the standings.
• A 9.7 from Meghana sees her fall to 133rd in the combined trends. Only eight make it to the ranking round.
• Meanwhile, Meghana and Elavenil have both opened their accounts with a 10.2.
• Jazmine Rubi Matta Alvarado of Guatemala and Israel’s Tal Engler start the second relay with 10.9s.

10M AIR RIFLE WOMEN RELAY 1

• Zhilin Wang (China) - 631.6, Jihyeon Kyum (Korea) - 631.2, Seonaid Mcintosh (Great Britain) - 630.6 are the top three after the first relay.
• Mehuli finishes sixth in the first relay of 10m air rifle women with a score of 629.7. With a full-blooded relay yet to start, the Bengal shooter’s score may just not be enough.

GOLD MEDAL MATCH: PATIL vs SOLLAZZO

• RUDRANKKSH TAKES THE GOLD MEDAL. A MASSIVE COME-FROM-BEHIND VICTORY FOR THE THANEKAR. HE TAKES THE OLYMPIC QUOTA ALONG WITH THE ‘WORLD CHAMPION’ TAG. 17-13.
• Another 10.7 and Patil is just one point away from the gold medal. 15-13 to India and now Italy has opted for a timeout.
• Sollazzo’s 10.7 not enough as Patil registers a 10.8. 13-13
• Patil not leaving an inch. A 10.5 from the Indian. 13-11 to Italy.
• Sollazzo extends his lead. 13-9. India calls for the optional timeout.
• Another two points for Patil after he shoots a 10.6. 11-9 to Italy.
• 10.4-all. Sollazzo and Patil share points. 11-7 to Italy.
• A 10.6 from Patil is greeted with wild cheers. 10-6 to Italy.
• Sollazzo enters double figures. 10-4.
• Patil hits the X. The Italian leads 6-4.
• Sollazzo leads 6-2 after four shots.

• SERIES 5: Sollazzo: 53.1, Yang: 52.1, Patil: 52.0, Sheng: 52.9. Patil and Sollazzo have qualified for the gold medal match. Sheng takes bronze.
• SERIES 4: Sollazzo: 52.7, Yang: 51.8, Privratsky: 51.7, Nekounam: 51.7, Patil: 52.9, Sheng: 52.7. Patil leads. Privratsky and Nekounam exit.
• SERIES 3: Sollazzo: 51.7, Yang: 51.8, Privratsky: 51.6, Nekounam: 52.4, Patil: 52.8, Raynaud: 51.7, Sheng: 52.4, Jadhav: 51.8. Raynaud and Jadhav have been eliminated. Patil leads.
• SERIES 2 - Sollazzo: 52.5, Yang: 52.1, Privratsky: 52.8, Nekounam: 52.0, Patil: 52.4, Raynaud: 52.0, Sheng: 52.0, Jadhav: 51.5
• SERIES 1 - Sollazzo: 52.7, Yang: 52.4, Privratsky: 51.6, Nekounam: 51.1, Patil: 51.8, Raynaud: 51.2, Sheng: 51.8, Jadhav: 50.9

10M AIR RIFLE WOMEN RELAY 1

• Mehuli’s first series is a 104.9. She is 15th. Carolynn Mary Tucker of USA leads with 105.3.
• Aisha Yousuf Almahmoud of Qatar and Serbia’s Sanja Vukasinovic start with 10.9s. Mehuli gets things rolling with a 10.7.

Mehuli Ghosh starts in the first relay. Meghana Sajjanar and Elavenil Valarivan to shoot in the next relay.

The men’s 10m air rifle final, which is scheduled to happen at 3:45pm IST, will have Patil and Jadhav in action. India and China are the only two countries with two athletes in the final. 630.0 is the cut-off.

The 10m air rifle finalists. They will be competing for four Olympic quotas.

10M AIR RIFLE MEN RELAY 2

• Patil has gone past Hungary’s Peter Sidi’s 633.5 (May 25, 2013) which still shows as the QWR on the ISSF website. However, Vladimir Maslennikov had shot 635.0 in Wroclaw’s President’s Cup on November 5, 2021. The ISSF has not yet updated records after Tokyo 2020 on its official website.

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil’s final score. He tops men’s 10m air rifle qualification.

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil’s fourth series: 105.1

• Babuta: 106.1. Rank: 15th. He needs more 106-plus scores to make the top-eight.
• Patil continues the brilliant show! A 106.4 from the lad now. Wonder if he is still thinking about what to eat, as he said he does during competitions, at the National Games...
• 104.0 from Babuta in the second series. The climb, if any hereon, is going to be quite steep.
• Right at the top! Patil leads the combined standings as he starts the third series with 10.8, 10.6, 10.6.
• Babuta’s first series goes for 103.9. Much to do. He is nowhere close to the competition.
• Patil moves second with a score of 105.8 in the first series. His second series is a massive 106.1. The 18-year-old starts right from where he left in the National Games.
• Lihao Sheng of China gets a 106.1 in the first series. Only Lochbihler had a better result than him - 106.2 - in today’s competition.
• Patil starts with 10.3. World No. 1 Babuta registers 10.2 followed by a 10.1 and 9.9. The World No. 1 is currently 82nd. Yikes!
• Sudan’s Arif Ali and Nigeria’s Jones George will not start in the second relay.

10M AIR RIFLE MEN RELAY 1

• Iran’s Amir Mohammad Nekounam (632.5) and China’s Tokyo 2020 medallist Yang Haoran (632.1) are first and second respectively.

Kiran Ankush Jadhav’s final target map after first relay.

• Nerves? Jadhav falters in the final attempt with a 9.7. Thankfully, World No. 4 Alexis Raynaud finishes with a 9.9, which sees Jadhav retain the third spot at the end of the sixth series. That should be good enough. Only if more than five people in the second relay score in excess of 630.6, Jadhav will not make the final. Seems unlikely but in this sport, you never know...
• The fifth series begins for Jadhav. He starts off with 10.2 but follows that up with three 10.6s on the trot, 10.9, two 10.4s and another perfect hit. He is currently seventh.
• Hungary’s Zalan Pekler (625.3) and Poland’s Maciej Kowalewicz (623.8) are done with their shots.
• Meanwhile, Haoran continues to dominate the field. Another 106.0 in the third series followed by a 105.8 in the fourth.
• 10.7, 10.4, 10.8, 10.6, 10.3, 10.9, 10.0, 10.4, 10.4, 10.5 - Jadhav’s now up to 8th with 419.5. Two more series to go. He needs to finish at least in the top-3 to give himself a stronger chance to finish in the combined top-8 after the next relay.
• With a few high-10s, Jadhav finishes with 105.4 midway into his attempt. Not bad...

Kiran Ankush Jadhav’s third series on the target map.

• Tokyo 2020 medallist Yang Haoran of China is No. 1 now with a 106.0 in the second series.
• Jadhav manages a mere 103.5 in the second series. The three consecutive 10.6s in the middle provide a bit of cushion.
• A 9.9 sees Jadhav slip to 14th again. It hasn’t an ideal start to the second series with scores of 10.3, 10.4, 9.9 and 10.3
• With a 106.2 in the first series, Switzerland veteran Jan Lochbihler leads the pack. Czech Petr Nymbursky and Dane Sampson of Australia follow with 105.9 each.
• Up to sixth now, is Jadhav. A superb recovery after the 10.3, which eventually turns out to be his worst shot in the first of six series in the relay. Oops... as I type, his first shot in the next series is a 10.3 again.
• Jadhav starts with a 10.3 in the 55-man relay 1. Rudrankksh and Babuta will be competing in the next relay. Meanwhile, a perfect 10.9 off the sixth shot in the first series sees Jadhav jump to the 14th spot.

First up, we will have Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (Bib No.: 1617), Kiran Ankush Jadhav (Bib No.: 1594) and Arjun Babuta (Bib No.: 1581) in action in 10m air rifle.

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

11:30am - 12:45pm IST: 10m air rifle men relay 1

1:30pm - 2:45pm IST: 10m air rifle men relay 2

3:30pm - 4:45pm IST: 10m air rifle women relay 1

3:45pm IST: Final 10m air rifle men

5:30pm - 6:45pm IST: 10m air rifle women relay 2

7:45 pm: Final 10m air rifle women

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. On Friday, the 10m air rifle finals - men (3:37pm IST) and women (7:37pm IST) - will be telecast.