Indian Shooting Team for Tokyo Olympics announced, Chinki misses out

Indian shooters performed brilliantly at the recently concluded ISSF Shooting World Cup.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced a 15-member Indian contingent for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. The Selection Committee, after a meeting on Sunday afternoon which lasted over five hours, also announced a set of 14 reserve shooters for each of the eligible events due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Reigning world number one in Women’s 10M Air Rifle Elavenil Valarivan, was the only athlete to have been picked in the team, who had not won, one of the 15-quotas won by the National Team. She would avail of the quota won by Anjum Moudgil in the event.

It was also decided by the National Selection Committee that the Olympics quota won by Chinki Yadav in the Women’s 25M Pistol would be swapped in favour of Anjum Moudgil, to enable her to compete in the Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions event as India’s second entry alongside former World Champion Tejaswini Sawant.

In shooting the quota won for the nation can only be swapped within the same gender.

Manu Bhaker, whose overall performances in the Women’s 25M Pistol had been better, the Committee felt, 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, Mr. Singh said, “The National Selection Committee’s main focus was to select the strongest squad for the Games and to ensure that the most consistent performers in each event, during the course of this entire Olympic cycle, do not miss out. I believe they have done an excellent job on both those fronts and we are confident that this selection will deliver.” He added, “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.”

The official Shooting Team list along with the Reserve squad

10M AIR RIFLE MEN

1. DIVYANSH SINGH PANWAR
2. DEEPAK KUMARSANDEEP SINGH – RESERVE SHOOTERAISHWARY PRATAP SINGH TOMAR – RESERVE SHOOTER

50M RIFLE 3 POSITION MEN

1. SANJEEV RAJPUT
2. AISHWARY PRATAP SINGH TOMARSWAPNIL KUSALE – RESERVE SHOOTERCHAIN SINGH – RESERVE SHOOTER

10M AIR PISTOL MEN

1. SAURABH CHAUDHARY
2. ABHISHEK VERMASHAHZAR RIZVI – RESERVE SHOOTEROM PRAKASH MITHARVAL – RESERVE SHOOTER

10M AIR RIFLE WOMEN

1. APURVI CHANDELA
2. ELAVENIL VALARIVANANJUM MOUDGIL – RESERVE SHOOTERSHREYA AGRAWAL – RESERVE SHOOTER

50M RIFLE 3 POSITION WOMEN

1. ANJUM MOUDGIL
2. TEJASWINI SAWANTSUNIDHI CHAUHAN – RESERVE SHOOTERGAAYATHRI N. – RESERVE SHOOTER

10M AIR PISTOL WOMEN

1. MANU BHAKER
2. YASHASWINI SINGH DESWALP. SHRI NIVETHA – RESERVE SHOOTERSHWETA SINGH – RESERVE SHOOTER

25M SPORTS PISTOL WOMEN

1. RAHI SARNOBAT
2. MANU BHAKERCHINKI YADAV – RESERVE SHOOTERABHIDNYA PATIL – RESERVE SHOOTER

SKEET MEN

1. ANGADVIR SINGH BAJWA
2. MAIRAJ AHMAD KHANGURJOAT SIINGH KHANGURA – RESERVE SHOOTERSHEERAZ SHEIKH – RESERVE SHOOTER

10M AIR RIFLE MIXED TEAM

1. DIVYANSH SINGH PANWAR
2. ELAVENIL VALARIVAN
3. DEEPAK KUMAR
4. ANJUM MOUDGIL

10M AIR PISTOL MIXED TEAM

1. SAURABH CHAUDHARY
2. MANU BHAKER
3. ABHISHEK VERMA
4. YASHASWINI SINGH DESWAL

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