Divyansh, Arjun, Anjum, make it to the finals of 10M Air Rifle in Shooting World Cup

by Kheltoday · March 20, 2021

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Anjum Moudgil at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi: Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range was full of life on Friday. International Shooters, coaches, officials, Media persons, and a workforce of the National Rifle Association of India was quite busy, roaming here and there from one range to another, but the main attraction of the center was 10 Meter Range where men and women were in action in the10M Air Rifle event of ISSF World Cup2021. Host NRAI is not encouraging spectators to come and watch live-action, so only shooters, coaches, officials, staff, and media persons were there to do their job. .. Oh, not to forget, four-five unwanted ‘spectators’ also made their entry inside the Range. When the competition was in full swing the gang of Monkeys, made their presence felt by everyone by screaming and running over the AC pipes, sitting and watching three Indian shooters qualify for the finals.

Divyansh Panwar celebrating after reaching the finals.

Hosts India had a good opening competition day as three Shooters, world number one Divyansh Singh Panwar and Arjun Babuta in the Men’s 10M Air Rifle and Anjum Moudgil in the women’s10M Air Rifle event, made it through to the finals at the end of the 60-shot qualifying round in New Delhi’s Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Friday.

Both the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Rifle finals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Saturday has four blockbuster finals lined up with the Men’s and Women’s 10M Air Pistol finals also scheduled on the day.

About the expectation from the shooters, President of NRAI Raninder Singh had said that “They are number one in the world but hardly participated in competitions because of Lockdown”. World number one India’s Divyansh Singh Panwar qualified for the final round with the sixth position but in the women section World number one Elavenil Valarivan of India missed out, with 12th position.

Arjun Babuta shooting.

The men started the ball rolling as India number two Arjun Babuta shot a high-quality 631.8 to finish third in the 39-strong field. World number one Divyansh Singh Panwar also followed him to the eight-man final slated for Saturday, with a 629.1 which gave him sixth position overall.

Nam Taeyun of Korea topped the Men’s field with a 632.1 and given his current world rank of 18 and the fact that all other finalists are not eligible except his own teammate Choo Byounggil who is ranked way below him, should bag the only available Tokyo Olympics quota based on world rankings. Deepak Kumar, the third Indian in the field finished 12^thwith a score of 626.4.

In the Women’s 10M Air Rifle, world number four and Tokyo quota holder Anjum Moudgil was the lone Indian to qualify. She shot 629.6 to come in second in the 48-strong field, behind Hungary’s Denes Eszter who shot 629.8.

World number one Elavenil Valarivan of India missed out, however, finishing 12^thwith a score of 626.7. So did her teammate Apurvi Chandela who finished 26^thwith 622.8.

Anjum talking to her coach.

The world-ranking quota in the Women’s event is up for a fight though, with Dane Ibsen Rikke Maeng (world rank 11) and American Mary Tucker (world rank 20) making it to the finals among others.