Indian Shooting thread

[Sin Hombre]

Naruka won us the quota in the men and Raiza won us the quota in the women, both won silvers. The other 2 Indian women (Maheshwari and Ganemat) finished 3rd and 4th.

So we have 8 quotas and both mixed team spots in the rifle events (had them prior to these championships), 7 quota spots in pistol and technically 8 with both mixed team spots in the pistol, and 4 quota spots in shotgun with one mixed team slot. We are not eligible for any quota spots through the world rankings so just one more qualification event remains to add more spots.

Skeet is a very consistent shooting event unlike pistol and rifle. We have an outside chance of a medal in the mixed - there are only 8 teams (+France) who have qualified so far with one of them Peru who come from a weak federation. The two US teams will be the favourites.

[sameerph]

At the start of this tournament, I had hoped for 2 skeet quotas and that is what we got. Surprisingly, a new shooter emerged in womens skeet Raiza Dhiilon and 2 other shooters finished third and fourth. That gives hope that we can second quota in this event at world qualification tournament in April.

This is the first time ever that we will have at least 1 competitors in every shooting event at Olympics.

We are not eligible for any quota spots through the world rankings so just one more qualification event remains to add more spots.

We are eligible for quota places thru rankings in the events where we do not have 2 quota places. This is from Olympic qualification guidelines-

For ranking spot, quotas will be awarded to the highest ranked athlete from the olympic qualification rankings having not yet qualified in any event and the NOC of same athlete has not already achieved more than 1 quota place in that event.

So, as of now we are eligible for quota thru ranking in all 4 shotgun events and womens 10M air pistol. If we get quota at final world qualification event in any of these events, than we will become ineligible to earn quota thru rankings route in that event.

The best places Indian shooter in olympic qualification rankings in these events is Prithviraj Tondaiman in mens trap. He is ranked 5th and all 4 currently above him are ineligible. So, quite good chances that if we do get a quota in mens trap at last world qualification ranking, we will get quota thru world ranking.

[Sin Hombre]

Thanks sameer - i somehow misread it as having one quota disqualified you from that event.

[sameerph]

First of this year's world cup is currently on in Cairo,Egypt. Some of our top shooters are not participating here but quite a few are still there. Also China does not seem to be there but many of the other top countries are there.

10M rifle and pistol events are done and some good results for us. In mens 10M Air rifle, Divyansh Panwar won gold with a world record final score, Arjun Babuta finished 6th in final. In womens 10M air rifle, Sonam Maskar won silver and Nancy was 4th. In womens 10M air pistol, another new name, Anuradha Devi won the silver.

In mixed team, pistol team of Ujwal Malik and Rhythm Sangwan won gold while rifle team of Arjun Babuta and Sonam Maskar won silver.

[sameerph]

Akhil Sheoran wins bronze in last event of Cairo world cup which was the only other medal won apart from the one mentioned in last post.

Again rifle shooters showing medal winning ability than pistol despite some of our top shooters ( Aishwaryi, Swift) not being here.

[srini]

https://www.outlookindia.com/sports/oth ... ai-says-no

Contrary to what we all were expecting from the NRAI, it doesn't seems to select its olympic contingent purely based on the rules that it publishes. It looks like some exceptions are made.

Take this case from above mentioned link.
--------------
A woman shooter who bagged an Olympic quota in 50m rifle 3 positions last year has seen her national ranking drop to 16 but she has been included in the top-5 for the trials because of the Paris berth she had earned.

"That is something I suppose is fair given that she has earned the country an Olympic quota," said a former national rifle coach on conditions of anonymity.
--------------
This is nothing but over riding their own published rules isn't it?

Regardless of what rules NRAI currently have, i think if NRAI doesn't restrict the trials to top-5 shooters by rank then it would improve the chances of medals because the current form is the only thing that matters in shooting. As trials are being conducted with just 2months to go, why not hold the trails for all 30 or 40 shooters available and pick the ones who score best? If you want to remove randomness playing any factor in the trials then increase the number of trials but why restrict the number of shooters participating in trials? especially since India has a large number of talented pool to pick from!

[sameerph]

Final olympic qualifiers for rifle and pistol shooter began today in Rio De Janerio, Brazil.

We have only 1 quota remaining to be taken in rifle/pistol - 1 in womens 10M Air pistol. Today qualfiers took place and our 2 shooters, Asian games gold medalist Palak and junior world cup winner Sainyam both shot 578 in qualfied for final. Our third shooter, Surabhi Rao also shot 578 but missed out in 9th place on lower inner 10's.

Armenian shooter already has a quota. So, we have nations competing for 2 quotas with India double-dipping, final at 6 pm India time tomorrow.

[sameerph]

Palak wins bronze and since Armenian shooter who already has a quota finished ahead of her, she got our 20th quota for Paris Olympics. We now have full slate of 16 out of 16 possible quotas in rifle and pistol.

[Sin Hombre]

This will cause a selection dilemma instead of just sending Manu and Esha.

[srini]

There shouldn't be any selection dilemma if the NRAI has the maturity befitting an elite shooting nation's association body that achieved 2nd highest number of qualifications. They could have held Olympic trials for all the available pool of 30-40 shooters in the same qualifications and finals format of Olympics, assign weightage to both qualification and finals scores and select the top 2 shooters. But they are holding trials only for top-5 ranked athletes which is by itself a self-imposed restriction that can only achieve below-par results, but never the less will be better than the results achieved from last 2 Olympics because they were then using a more ludicrous selection criteria of placing too much weightage for the athletes who earned Olympic quota.

[sameerph]

Selection will anyway depend on performances in 2 set of trials which will be conducted by NRAI this month. Top 5 in each category will participate in those and in 10M women pistol, mostly Manu, Esha and Rhythm are likely to be their along with Palak and Sainyam who reached final here.

I think if one of the spots is taken by someone who also gets a spot in 25M pistol ( Esha, Manu and Rhythm will be part of both events in trials) than we will exchange this quota and get 1 in shotgun events.

[sameerph]

Final olympic qualfiers for shotgun begins today in Doha, Qatar. Here we have so far only 4 of the 8 possible quotas- 1 each in mens and womens trap and 1 each mens and womens skeet. So, can aim for remaining 4 quotas here. But, realistically would be happy even if we get 1-2 quotas here.

[Sin Hombre]

No one even close to a quota spot in trap.

[srini]

In Skeet, after 4 rounds, Maheswari Chauhan is leading the board with 98//100 in Skeet. If she can keep the composure for the remaining 1 round and makes it to final, we can hope for 1 of the 2 quotas available from this tournament.

We don't seem to have any contenders qualifying from Men's Skeet the way it is going.