With the confusion over Olympic quota places cleared at the shooting World Cup, the focus is back on the competition and the shooters. Beginning Saturday, more than 500 athletes will compete for 14 quota places that this World Cup in New Delhi offers.
The first two of the 14 quotas will be won on the first day of the event in the women’s 10m air rifle, the only event in which the final will be held on Saturday. A total of 100 shooters will be in the field and compete in the two relays, with shooters with top eight scores qualifying for the final in the evening.
Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan are the three shooters competing for India. Mehuli Ghosh and Meghana Sajjanar will be competing in the Minimum Qualification Score, a criteria where a shooter needs to achieve a certain score set by the international federation to be eligible to take part in Olympic Games or Youth Olympic Games qualification events.
India have already won possible two quotas in the event through Moudgil and Chandela in September last year by finishing second and fourth at the World Championships respectively.
But it will still be a test for the Indian shooters as National Rifle Association of India will take the final call on selection, based on the aggregate scores of shooters (in international tournaments and selection trials) leading up to the Olympic Games.
In other events, 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Elimination 1 and Elimination 2 will take place. India’s seasoned campaigner Sanjeev Rajput will be leading the Indian challenge alongwith Chain Singh, Parul Kumar and Akhil Sheoran.
Three more shooters from India will compete on Saturday. In the women’s 25m air pistol event, Asian Games champion Rahi Sornobat, Manu Bhaker and Chinki Yadav will compete in the raid and precision stages. The top eight shooters after the two stages will qualify for the Sunday’s final.
Both the men’s 50m rifle three-position and women’s 25m air pistol offer four quota places for which India will be fighting for as well.