Indian Shooting thread

[sameerph]

Yes, Anish finished day 1 with 289. He will need to what he did at CWG on day 2- 294 and not what he did at Asiad - 283. Tough path to the final.

[sameerph]

Anish shot 292 in rapid series and finished with a 581. Finished 1 point behind final for which last shot went at 582.

Edit : only 6 make it to the final. So, the final spot went at 584. Anish was 3 points behind.

[sameerph]

Overall we ended the world shooting championships with third place in medal tally with 11 golds and 27 medals.

Although most of those medals are either in non-olympic events and juniors, compared to just 2 medals in last world championships in 2014 it is a big progress by our shooters. We had only 1 junior medal last time around and we have improved manyfold in junior with number of golds and medals.

Although it may not have been reflected immediately in the medals at senior level in olympic events, the junior programme appears to be progressing great. Eventually this should lead to more medals at senior level, hopefully in Tokoyo in 2020 or if not, surely in the subsequent Asiad and olympics.

[jayakris]

Nice summary, sameer. That was the general impression I was getting, but I wasn't sure. Good to see that you feel positive about the future.

[Sin Hombre]

We won one medal and 2 quota spots in Olympic events so very hard for me to call it anything but a terrible tournament (and barely better than the disaster in 2014 where we won one medal).

Happy to be proven wrong but all the best juniors already participate in the seniors, and the only one that we missed out on was Saurabh.

Honestly, it is hard for me to see any Olympic medals from outside of Anjum, Manu and Saurabh (and potentially Elavenil). Apurvi (and Abhishek Verma) can produce a qualifying performance but not a finals performance, and I think her quota spot will be taken by Elavenil.

As of now, I have revised my expectations of Tokyo shooting medals down to 2, and that's accounting for growth from Manu, Saurabh and Elavenil in the coming 18 months.

[jayakris]

Okay, there goes my positive feeling... but then again, 2 medals at O will make me quite happy.

[sameerph]

Happy to be proven wrong but all the best juniors already participate in the seniors, and the only one that we missed out on was Saurabh.

Overall from 1 medal in juniors in 2014 to around 15 medals now is still a significant improvement. Perhaps some of those shooters may break out later than the others who are already in seniors. Just feel that overall junior programme is in much better shape than 2014. Therefore, I did mention that results of these may not be felt immediately in Tokyo olympics.

You are right that best juniors- Saurabh, Manu, Elavenil and Lakshay in trap already shot in seniors at Asiad. I would like to add 16 year old Hriday Hazarika to the list. His score in winning gold in 10M Air rifle juniors was better than senior final.

Honestly, it is hard for me to see any Olympic medals from outside of Anjum, Manu and Saurabh (and potentially Elavenil). Apurvi (and Abhishek Verma) can produce a qualifying performance but not a finals performance, and I think her quota spot will be taken by Elavenil.

Apurvi is world class in qualifying. She can improve in finals shooting by 2 years time. In fact, she did improve at WCH compared to Asiad. She finished 4th in a world class field and therefore has to be considered medal potential at Tokyo. The field there will be no better than the field here. Similarly, Deepak Kumar in 10M air rifle finished 6th which is not far from medal. Jitu Rai and Shahzar Rizvi are currently off form but have shown olympic level scores in recent past and can bounce back. Rahi also had olympic level performance at Asiad.

So, I still have my expectations of 3 medals in Tokyo - 1 from women air rifle/3P - Anjum/Apurvi/Elavenil, 1 from mens pistol - Saurabh/Shahzar/Abhishek/Jitu/Anish and 1 from among womens pistol (Manu/Rahi) and mens rifle -Deepak/Hriday.

[arjun2761]

Three or even two medals would be a significant improvement in the Olympics. Since they also win big at the Asian games and the CWG, the shooters are our best investment for the multisport games....

[depleter]

An interview from Elavenil Valarivan

https://fistosports.com/interview-elave ... n-shooter/

She further explains the reason why she had a little lack of confidence during the Asian Games, “there was some malfunction with my weapon. I played with mixed fear and nervousness, but I gained confidence later, I came back and I performed well after that.”

“Performance comes and goes, but the thing is how you work for it. And I worked hard for this,” she added.

I think here she talks about WCH as in afterwards....

But her 3 630+ scores definitely puts her in an elite league.

[Sin Hombre]

Way too early to put her in any elite league.

[srini]

In the runup to shooting World Cup at Delhi, this is a good 4 part article with in-depth insights into olympics qualification criteria intricacies in shooting. 4th part which analyses India chances is yet to be published

https://thebridge.in/road-to-the-olympi ... 20-part-1/

[sameerph]

News coming in that IOC has asked ISSF to cancel quota places for the New Delhi world cup as government denied visas to 3 Pakistani shooters. It is too much on the part of IOC to cancel quotas in all events as Pakistani shooters were to participate in only 1 event. (25M rapid fire men).

There may be some hope still as NRAI president Raninder Singh says that talks are still on with IOC.

But, if all quotas are cancelled it will be a big blow to our shooter's chances.

[srini]

Another glaring example how the decisions taken by India with heart rather than with brain cost us dear. A Home world cup in shooting almost at the beginning of Olympic qualification cycle would have given big momentum for our shooters, but it was not be thanks to the idiotic handling of visas to the 2 pak shooters. I am sure we just lost 3-4 quota places and a medal.Even a kid can tell what would happen, if visas were denied to participants.I was anxiously following this since there were reports about Pak rifle association talking about possible visa denials.But immediately there were also reports of NRAI jumping in , talking to government and assuring visas will be issued in time. But oh well, who are we talking about here ? The idiotic ministry of external affairs who think their job is done with rescuing people who make appeal on twitter.Will they be held accountable if india return from Tokyo without medals? Hardly Indian media is sensible to cry foul where needed who would only shout "Nation wants to know why Pak shooters are issued visa without taking revenge" if they had been issued visas.

[sameerph]

Srini, in the current surcharged atmosphere, it would be difficult for any government to issue visas to Pakistani athletes and would give wrong signals.

Good news is now only 2 quotas pertaining to mens rapid fire pistol event are scrapped and we managed to retain 14 of the 16 quotas which were on offer for the event. Lets see how many our shooters can get here.

[srini]

Thanks Sameer for the update. Looks like ISSF declared that all 16 quota from this worldcup would be withdrawn, but IOC which had the authority to take the final call in the matter revoked only the 2 in rapid fire that Pak shooters couldn't participate.I was looking forward to how two kids Anish and Adarsh are going perform in this category. Hope they get qualified in Beijing.