Divyansh Singh Panwar on Friday won a silver medal in the 10 m men’s air rifle event at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing, China. The teenager also secured an Olympic quota in the same event event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The 17-year-old shot a score of 249.0 finishing 0.4 behind China’s Zicheng Hui, who had claimed the final qualification spot on the day, before turning the heat on in the final. Russian Grigorii Shamakov won Bronze with a score of 227.5.
China had already secured its maximum two quotas in the event, thereby the two available quotas went to Indian and Russia. Shamakov ensured that Russia had maximized their Olympic quotas in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle.
India have now won a total of four Tokyo Olympic quota places in Shooting through Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Saurabh Chaudhary in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol and now with Panwar’s effort getting them their first in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle.
A maximum of 24 quota places, two each across 12 events in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun can be won by an individual National Olympic Committee. Based on the quotas won, countries can field teams in the three mixed events, which will be held for the first time at the Tokyo games.
What is even better news for India is the fact that now they can field at least one Mixed Team Air Rifle pair in Tokyo, given the women have already won the maximum two individual quota places in their 10m Air Rifle competition.
Panwar, who was competing in only his second senior world cup, had qualified in third position for the final with a total score of 629.2.
While a 10.9 for his 21st shot was a clear highlight of the final, two other shots, a 10.5 to secure bronze and a 10.5 for his 17th under a bit of pressure from the legendary Hungarian Peter Sidi, stood out.
Among the other Indians in fray, Ravi Kumar finished 44th with a score of 624.1 while Deepak Kumar was 57th with a total of 622.6.
This was Panwar’s second medal at the event after clinching gold in the 10 m air rifle mixed team event along with Anjum Moudgil.
This was India’s third medal at the World Cup in China and they sit at the top of the medal tally.
The duo of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary had on Thursday won gold in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event on Wednesday.
In the other event of the day, the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire competition, Adarsh Singh was the best Indian performer finishing 10th with a score of 583 in qualifying. Anish Bhanwala was next claiming 22nd spot with a score of 578 while Arpit Goel finished with 575 to claim 29th spot.
China’s world number one Lin Junmin won gold in the event with a final round score of 35 while Germany’s Oliver Geis won silver with 31 and France’s Jean Quiquampoix won bronze with 27 points.
