ISSF World Cup: Indian shooters lose big at home

Navneet Singh 
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

There was a sinking feeling in the Indian camp as events offering Tokyo Olympics quota places came to an end at the ISSF World Cup here on Tuesday. India could win only one of the 12 quota places on offer from the tournament. Expectations were high from shooters to fire at home and book Tokyo berths. Now they will have to compete in the remaining two World Cups and continental events to win quotas.

On Tuesday, Manu Bhaker and seasoned Heena Sidhu failed to qualify in 10m air pistol, drawing curtains on a disappointing campaign. After the organizers managed to save the tournament’s ‘Olympic qualifying status’ following denial of visas to Pakistan players, there was relief and shooters were expected to come out firing .

Rifle shooter Apurvi Chandela, who had already won a Tokyo Games quota from the World Championships, gave a rousing start by winning gold in women’s 10m air rifle.

Teen sensation Saurabh Chaudhary carried forward the momentum, claiming gold and a Tokyo Olympics quota place in 10m air pistol with a world record score (245).

But the challenge fizzled out thereafter. Only four Indians could make it to the finals in eight events, six of them were offering Olympic berths.

On Tuesday, there was huge expectation from ace pistol shooter Heena Sidhu and young Manu Bhaker when the duo lined up for the qualification round in women’s 10m air pistol.

Going by the recent performances of Heena and Manu, the Indian camp was hopeful of at least one quota place. But at the end of the 75-minute contest, it turned out to be a damp squib.

Heena scored 571, while Manu shot 573 to miss out on a final berth. Manu finished 14th and Heena 25th. Incidentally, both shooters have regularly shot 575 and above. The third Indian in the fray — Anuradha — too faltered. Her best on the day was 571. Iran’s Mina Ghorbani was the eighth and last competitor to enter the final with a total of 574. “Some bad shots hampered my progress. Also, I should have managed my time better,” said Heena.

She had a poor start, scoring two 8s and one 9 in the first series of 10-shot. Though Heena had better scores in the second series, she wasn’t able to stay in the zone for long. Heena claimed that “too much training’’ was one of the reasons for the poor show. “I badly wanted to win the quota. It weighed too much on my mind,’’ she said.

Women’s 25m sports pistol too was considered a strong event. Jakarta Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat and 16-year old Manu were among the contenders. While Rahi failed to recreate her Asian Games form, Manu had a roaring start, finishing second in qualification. She, however, faded away to finish fifth in the final. Pistol coach Pavel Smirnov said the shooters had good scores in the preparatory camp. ‘’We will review the situation. Maybe, they were bogged down by mental pressure,’’ he said.

In men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, teenager Anish Bhanwala reached the final, but he too finished fifth in a competitive field that included Germany’s Rio Olympic champion Christian Reitz. There was also disappointment at the 50m range as seasoned rifle shooters like Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini Sawant failed to inspire others.

In 10m air rifle, Jakarta Asian Games silver medallist Deepak Kumar was aiming for a podium finish. But he failed miserably, scoring 624 in qualification which was way below his personal best of 630 shot during the 2018 World Championships at Changwon. “Injury in the right leg was the main reason for below par score. Three days before the World Cup he had cramps,’’ said his coach Manoj Kumar,

Air rifle shooter Ravi Kumar couldn’t progress to final due to lack of form. The coach added, ‘’He too was recovering from an injury suffered last year in November.’’

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

Source: - https://www.hindustantimes.com

India’s Chandela rocks New Delhi’s final hall: gold and world record

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol · New Delhi, IND - 23.02.2019

She climbed to the top of the 10m Air Rifle Women event, securing a spectacular home victory.

The 2019 ISSF Wolrd Cup season kicked off today from New Delhi, India, where the first match of the year - the 10m Air Rifle Women Final - took place at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

The match turned into a triumph for the home country, as local hero Apurvi Chandela secured gold in a spectacular fashion, while setting a new world record of 252.9 points, out of 24 final shots. That means she scored more than 10.5 points per shot, in average, throughout the final: an exceptional achievement. 

After a relatively slow start, the 26-year old shooting star of India climbed into the upper part of the leaderboard. The crowd burst into applauses as she scored a sharp 10.8 on her 16th shot, moving up to the second place. A 10.6 on her 17th shot propelled her atop of the table, where she continued shooting excellent tens, to end up in first place. 

Chandela’s 252.9 final score turned out to be her personal best, as well as a new world record that shattered the previous 252.4 record set by China’s Zhao Ruozhu last year.

The Chinese athlete was part of today’s match, and closed in second place with 251.8 points. The 2018 Asian Games Champion led the match throughout the first shot, but couldn’t resist the progression of Chandela, who was supported here by a cheerful crowd of local supporters. 

The second Chinese finalist, Xu Hong, 20, took today’s Bronze with 230.4 points. 

With their silver-bronze combo, the two Chinese teammates also secured the two Tokyo 2020 quota places up for grabs, as Chandela had already won an Olympic ticket at last year’s World Championship (each athlete can only win a maximum of one quota). The third Chinese finalist, Zhu Yingjie, the 2017 Junior World Champion, closed the match in 4th place with 206.7 points. 

“Competing on my home turf added some extra pressure,” Chandela said, after the final. “At the same time, to hear them cheering gave me the motivation for a strong competition.”

“I started shooting in 2008, after Abhinav Bindra’s victory at the 2008 Olympic Games. My family always supported me, and they are a big part of my success. My mum was here, in the crowd: She always follow me.”

“My aim is Tokyo 2020. The Games are the big dream.”

“The road to Tokyo is still long, I won’t stop here, there are many international competitions ahead of me, before that.”

The Wolrd Cup stage will continue tomorrow. An action-packed Sunday will see the conduction of three finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men, the 10m Air Pistol Men and the 25m Pistol Women matches. 

All finals will be broadcasted live on the ISSF website, YouTube, Facebook and Livestream channels. 

Find the full schedule of New Delhi’s live broadcasts here: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/finalslivebroadcastschedule.ashx?cshipid=2540 

Find the full results of the event at: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/results/detail.ashx?cshipid=2540&resultkey=3b3b303b41523630573b303b463b493b313b303b30 

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RESULTS - 10m Air Rifle Women

1. CHANDELA Apurvi

2. ZHAO Ruozhu

3. XU Hong

23.02.2019

Marco Dalla Dea

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source ISSF Website

ISSF claim positive meetings with Tokyo 2020 as proposals put forward to help reduce costs

• By Michael Pavitt
 
•  Sunday, 17 February 2019

The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has revealed several proposals have been put forward to help reduce costs for Tokyo 2020 in holding the sport.

The governing body announced the proposals were discussed with Tokyo 2020 as ISSF President Vladimir Lisin made an official visit to the Japanese capital city to check preparations for the Olympic Games. 

The Russian was making the visit for the first time in the role, having been elected as ISSF President back in November.

Proposals to help reduce the cost of construction of shooting facilities and the test event for the Games were suggested, the ISSF revealed. 

A test event for shooting is currently expected to take place in April, although this is yet to be officially confirmed by Tokyo 2020.

The event will take place at the Asaka Shooting Range.

The ISSF assert the proposals were part of the ongoing efforts to help reduce the costs of Tokyo 2020, a constant topic in the build-up to the Games.

ISSF President Vladimir Lisin also met with Tokyo 2020 sport director Koji Murofushi ©ISSF

A delegation from the governing body met with Tokyo 2020’s sport department, including its director Koji Murofushi, where transportation, venue management and accommodation were reportedly among the key topics of discussion.

Procurement and sport presentation were also areas explored during the meeting.

The ISSF claim their delegation highlighted best practice methods to help with the planning of the sport at the Games and agreed to work jointly with organizers to achieve the desired result.

An increased collaboration between Olympic Games organizers and International Federations has been heavily encouraged by the International Olympic Committee.

It has been hoped the shared expertise would help to reduce the cost of staging the Olympic Games.

Lisin also held meetings with the Kiichiro Matsumaru, President of the National Rifle Association of Japan, as well as Japan Clay Target Shooting Association head Yoshihiro Takahashi.

The ISSF claimed they had enjoyed a positive outcome from their visit, which was reportedly confirmed by a meeting with Tokyo 2020 President Yoshirō Mori.

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

Source: - https://www.insidethegames.biz

Saurabh eyes Olympic berth in ISSF World Cup

Saturday, 09 February 2019 | PNS | New Delhi

Unfazed by his opponents reputation, India's young shooting superstar Saurabh Chaudhary is confident that his strong preparations will help him to build on his stellar performance of 2018 and is hopeful of producing favorable results in upcoming ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol which is scheduled to take place in the capital city from February 20 to 28th at Karni Singh shooting range.

"My training is going very good and I am happy about it. I am hopeful of producing good performances this time too. It doesn't matter to me who my opponent is, whether it's an experienced campaigner or a newcomer. I just believe in my preparations and it is the only factor that matters to me."

In shooting particularly junior shooters can take part in the senior events as well as there is no restrictions in terms of age of the participating athlete and asked about if there is any sort of different preparations which he takes care of while preparing, 16-year old Saurabh, who won back to back Gold medals in Asian Games and Youth Olympics in the latter half of 2018 said there is nothing different in terms of preparations as his focus always remains in delivering his best.

"I don't prepare according to the tournament standards because there is stiff competition in each one, so my focus always remains in delivering my best."

On being asked if there's any sort of pressure over him after his stellar performance of the previous year and all eyes focused on him, the young achiever said, he feels good about his yesteryear performance but isn't worried about pressure situation at all.

"It feels good to deliver strong performance on the range and bring laurels for the country. And since my preparations are going very well so there isn't any pressure sort of situation."

Talking about ups and downs in sport he said that it is part of the game and it is not always necessary that every time the results are favorable.

"Ups and Downs are part and parcel of sport. It is not like that every time I will be the only one winning Gold. Winning obviously is a nice thing but winning every time is not fixed, so it goes on in sports."

With 16 Tokyo Olympics quota places up for grabs in the tournament starting from 20th, India is still able to extract a maximum of 14 considering that Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela have already booked their quotas in the women's 10m Air Rifle and NRAI chief Raninder expects a healthy outcome from the 34-member home squad.

"We have a top fighting fit squad and a good mix of senior shooters and young turks, who have proved their mettle time and again in world class international competitions. I am confident of a good showing and we look to bag the maximum number of quotas possible," he said.

"Realistically, I expect anything between two to four quotas. But in shooting, it is all about how you do on that particular day. So, we can get more also," NRAI chief Singh added.

In all, 495 athletes from 58 nations will be converging at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (KSSR) when competitions begin in right earnest with the first final slated for February 23.

Only the two Mixed Team events, one each in Air Rifle and Air Pistol, out of the 10 events will have no quotas on offer.

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

Source: - https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019

Landmark broadcast deal for shooting, ISSF World Cups on Sony

The sport of shooting is about to get much needed broadcast exposure in the country. Shooting which hitherto was considered as not too television friendly sport has at-least got a permanent broadcast partner in India. Starting from the forthcoming shooting World Cup in Delhi starting from February 21st, the sport has got permanent broadcaster in form of Sony Pictures Network.

“Sony will be covering the World Cup. Doordarshan will also broadcast. Since the World Cup is an ISSF event, the world body has signed the deal with Sony Television not only for this World Cup but other World Cups as well,” said the president of the National Rifle Association of India, Raninder Singh.

The rifle and pistol shooting world cup will be staged at Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, from February 21 and the Indian shooting will have a great opportunity to project its bright image, with assured high-quality live television coverage of the tournament. Even though shooters from around the world will be eyeing the 16 Olympic quota places on offer, in eight events for men and women, for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it will be an ideal platform for the Indian shooters to showcase their class and strike power.

The sport of shooting which rarely gets broadcast support will be seen once again on the main-stream sports broadcast platform like Sony. Earlier India had conducted the Asian Olympic qualifying event before the Rio Olympics which was broadcasted live on Star Sports network in 2015-16. During the press interaction, the NRAI president also declares that a lot of national shooting associations will be coming with their presidents to watch the World Cup, including the ones from Guatemala, Mexico, and Russia. Singh said the range was getting ready to host the World Cup, especially with a nice setting in the final hall.

“We are not taking any funds from the government for organizing the event, and the ISSF is taking care of the production cost of the television coverage,” he said.

The NRAI president also expressed hope that in the long run, the national championships would have television coverage. He said there was considerable potential to take the sport forward as 7,000 athletes competed in the last national championships.

According to the shooting experts, the Indian shooters had a good chance for the winning 14 quota places during the World Cup in Delhi.

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl