What is next for Indian shooting after Tokyo Olympics?

The country failed to win any medal in the sport at the mega event.

Since the turn of the century, Indian shooting has had great success at the Olympic Games. However, the country's shooters have now gone medal-less in each of the last two editions of the quadrennial event. This is despite the fact that the current Indian shooting contingent contains some of the most talented faces in the world.

With an unprecedented 15 quota places secured, India had sent their largest-ever shooting contingent to the Tokyo Olympics. However, the shooters failed to live up to the expectations and performed miserably. The likes of Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and many others were expected to fetch multiple medals for the nation. But, they didn’t even come close to fulfilling the target.

With Tokyo 2020 now in the past, it is time for the Indian shooters to turn their focus towards several upcoming competitions. Let’s take a look at the forthcoming shooting competitions where Indians will be participating:

ISSF Junior World Championship 2021

The ISSF Junior World Championship will take place in the Peruvian capital of Lima later this month. It will begin on 27th September and will go on till 10th October.

Among big names, Manu Bhaker has already confirmed that she will return to the junior event for the first time since 2018. The 19-year-old will participate in five events, namely 10m air pistol, 25m sports pistol, 10m mixed air pistol, 10m women's team and 25m women's team. Her partner in the mixed team event will be Sarabjot Singh. In shotgun, all eyes will be on the 2017 Junior World Cup bronze medalist Shapath Bhardwaj.

ISSF President's Cup 2021

The 2021 ISSF President's Cup in shotgun will take place in Larnaca, Cyprus, on October 19-24. On the other hand, the 2021 ISSF President's Cup in rifle/pistol will take place in Wroclaw, Poland from 3rd to 10th November.

The top 12 athletes in Individual shotgun, rifle and pistol Olympic events will be eligible to participate in the President's Cup according to the 2021 World Ranking after the Tokyo Olympics. Manu Bhaker will take part in both the 10m and 25m women's pistol events. Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma will represent India in 10m men's air pistol.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar will be amongst the shooters in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions. Other Indian participants will include Yashaswini Singh Deswal in women's 10m air pistol and Rahi Sarnobat in women's 25m pistol.

ISSF World Cup 2022

The major year-long shooting event is the ISSF World Cup. The shotgun events in 2022 will take place in Rabat in Morocco, Nicosia in Cyprus, Lima in Peru, Lonato in Italy and Shanxi in China.

Whereas, the rifle/pistol events will be held in Jakarta in Indonesia, Cairo in Egypt and Chengdu in China. Additionally, a combined shotgun, rifle and pistol competition will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Several events in the 2021 edition of the ISSF World Cup have been hampered due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Indian shooters have displayed exemplary form in the events that have taken place. Such has been India's dominance this year that they sit pretty at the top with a total of 34 medals (16 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze). The second placed USA have a combined medal tally of 16.

ISSF Grand Prix 2022

The ISSF Grand Prix is another annual event in the shooting calendar. In 2022, the 10m pistol events will take place in Ruse, a small Northeastern town in Slovenia and Osijek in Croatia.

Meanwhile, the shotgun events will take place across three different venues between May to October next year. The venues will be Granada in Spain, Almaty in Kazakhstan and Konya in Turkey.

Asian Games 2022

Shooting will not be a part of the Commonwealth Games 2022 menu. Therefore, the Indian shooters will have their sole focus on the Asian Games. The 19th edition of the prestigious competition will take place in Hangzhou, China between September 10-25. Hangzhou will also become the third Chinese city to host the continental meet after Beijing (1990) and Guangzhou (2010).

The Asian Games will include athletes from Oceania for the first time. In the previous edition in Jakarta, India had finished in third place in the medal table with nine medals (two gold, four silver and three bronze). Saurabh Chaudhary and Rahi Sarnobat will be defending their continental crowns next year. The Indian contingent certainly has the potential to better that medal haul in China.

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