Full list of Indian shooters selected for Tokyo 2020: Elavenil Valarivan picked for 10m air rifle

Rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan was on Sunday included in a 15-member Indian shooting contingent for the Tokyo Olympics while Manu Bhaker is slated to represent the country in three events.

Bhaker will be fielded in both the women’s 25m pistol alongside the experienced Rahi Sarnobat and in her pet 10m air pistol event with Yashaswini Singh Deswal. She will partner Saurabh Chaudhary in the mixed team event, where they have had a stellar run at the World Cups.

Pistol quota winner Chinki Yadav, who had claimed a gold in the Delhi World Cup last month, could only earn a reserve spot.

To deal with the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Rifle Association of India named two reserves in each discipline where its shooters have won quota places for the Games.

The NRAI selection committee assembled to announce the names of 15 shooters who will represent the country at the Games, scheduled to be held in the Japanese capital from July 23 to August 8.

Chinki Yadav had led an Indian clean sweep in the women’s 25m pistol event in Delhi, pipping Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker.

The shooters were selected based on their performance in the NRAI’s four-year Olympic qualifying cycle, starting with the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games which was followed by World Championship (both in 2018), all four World Cups and Asian Championships in 2019 and selection trials stage 1 and 2 earlier this year, reported PTI. As per the NRAI’s stated policy, an average of five best scores in an international competition, starting with the Jakarta Asiad, was taken into account while picking the final team.

It also means that Anjum Moudgil, who was the first Indian shooter along with Apurvi Chandela to earn quota for the Tokyo Games at the 2018 World Championships, will be fielded in women’s rifle 3 positions event along with the seasoned Tejaswini Sawant.

Chandela and Elavenil will participate in the women’s 10m air rifle event. Chinki and Moudgil were kept as reserves in 25m pistol and 10m air rifle events respectively.

It is worth noting that the quota belongs to the country and not the shooter who secures it. Reigning world No 1 in Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Elavenil was the only athlete to have been picked in the team who had not won one of the 15 quota spots by the NOC and the association said she would avail of the quota originally won by Moudgil in the event.

Delhi Shooting World Cup takeaways: Mixed hopes, new names and challenge for India ahead of Olympics

The selection committee also decided that the quota won by Chinki in the women’s 25m pistol would be swapped in favour of Moudgil, to enable the latter to compete in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 positions event as India’s second entry alongside former World Champion Tejaswini Sawant.

The statement by the association added that, “Manu Bhaker, whose overall performances in the women’s 25m Pistol had been better would take advantage of the double-start rule and compete in both the women’s 10m Air Pistol and the 25m Pistol individual events.

“Anjum would also compete in the Mixed Air Rifle Team competition alongside Deepak Kumar as India’s second team in the event. Elavenil and Divyansh would form the first pairing. Apurvi Chandela therefore competes only in the women’s 10m Air Rifle individual competition.”

Commenting on the team, President Raninder Singh said, “The selection I believe has been done purely on merit and in keeping with the provisions of NRAI’s Olympic selection ranking policy. This merit based approach has enabled us to field a third specialist shooter in the women’s 10m Air Rifle events as well as go with the two best shooters in women’s 25M Pistol event.”

Team selected for Tokyo Olympics:

10m Air Rifle Men 

1. Divyansh Singh Panwar  

2. Deepak Kumar  

Sandeep Singh – Reserve Shooter  

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar – Reserve Shooter  

50m Rifle 3 Position Men

1. Sanjeev Rajput  

2. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar  

Swapnil Kusale – Reserve Shooter  

Chain Singh – Reserve Shooter  

10m Air Pistol Men

1. Saurabh Chaudhary  

2. Abhishek Verma  

Shahzar Rizvi – Reserve Shooter  

Om Prakash Mitharval – Reserve Shooter  

10m Air Rifle Women

1. Apurvi Chandela  

2. Elavenil Valarivan  

Anjum Moudgil – Reserve Shooter  

Shreya Agrawal – Reserve Shooter  

50m Rifle 3 Position Women

1. Anjum Moudgil  

2. Tejaswini Sawant  

Sunidhi Chauhan – Reserve Shooter  

Gaayathri N. – Reserve Shooter 

10m Air Pistol Women

1. Manu Bhaker  

2. Yashaswini Singh Deswal  

P. Shri Nivetha – Reserve Shooter  

Shweta Singh – Reserve Shooter  

25m Sports Pistol Women

1. Rahi Sarnobat  

2. Manu Bhaker  

Chinki Yadav – Reserve Shooter  

Abhidnya Patil – Reserve Shooter  

Skeet Men

1. Angadvir Singh Bajwa  

2. Mairaj Ahmad Khan  

Gurjoat Siingh Khangura – Reserve Shooter  Sheeraz Sheikh – Reserve Shooter  

10m Air Rifle Mixed Team

1. Divyansh Singh Panwar  and Elavenil Valarivan  

1. Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil  

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team

1. Saurabh Chaudhary  and Manu Bhaker  

2. Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal 

With PTI inputs