How athletes have strived for achieving greatness during extraordinary times.
Some of the world's elite shooters will transform their living rooms into competition ranges on April 15 for a first-of-its-kind international online championship, the coronavirus lockdown triggering another out of the box thinking. An electronic target setup, beside a mobile phone with internet connection, is all they require to shoot in the championship.
Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and young Mehuli Ghosh failed to make the Indian shooting squad for the upcoming Asian Games, even as a few unheralded faces were picked for the quadrennial extravaganza, starting in Indonesia, from August 18.
Elavenil Valarivan and Anish Bhanwala, two of India's finest young shooters, were on Friday named in a 34-member core group for the Tokyo Olympics. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) released the list of shooters who will be training separately for the quadrennial sporting extravaganza, scheduled to be held next summer after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Games back by a year.
A look at Indian athletes' showing at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, July 27.
Shooting has provided some rare Olympic joy for India
India's junior shooting coach Jaspal Rana advised his wards, urging them to follow in the footsteps of Abhinav Bindra and not take things for granted.
Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished a lowly 26th and 32nd respectively in the men's 10 metres Air Rifle event of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday
Check out the complete schedule of Indian athletes at the Tokyo Olympics
India clinch both ISSF President's Trophies
Heena has been ignored for the Asian Games mixed team air pistol -- an event where she has excelled since its introduction last year.
Manu won the women's 10m Air Pistol on day three of competition while Saurabh bagged a team gold in the men's event.
a look at the country's athletes' showing at the Tokyo Games on Thursday.
Indian Women's Hockey team leaves for Argentina tour.
Sports Minister hands over trophies to 2020 National Sports Awards winners
Seven Olympic and six Paralympic disciplines were identified for support at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell.
The 16-year-old Indian bested China's Qin Sihang and Thailand's Kanyakorn Hirunphoem, who respectively took silver and bronze in the pistol event, the tournament's final day.
The 23-year-old, a bronze-winner in the 10m air pistol and the 50m pistol events of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast earlier this year, shot a score of 564 to finish on top.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
However, Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma failed to qualify for the final of 10m mixed air pistol event.
A look at the country's athletes' showing at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, July 30.
Mary Kom's winning start and Manika Batra's brilliant come-from-behind victory were the only bright spots in an otherwise gloomy day for India at Tokyo, observes Raj Kishore Mishra.
The participation of Indian athletes in Friday's Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony will be kept to a 'bare minimum' in view of the COVID-19 threat, while only six officials from the contingent will be allowed to take part in the event.
India have done reasonably well in the quadrennial continental event, only twice finishing outside the top eight since hosting the first Asiad in 1951.
Indians will enter the upcoming Olympics with heightened expectations
India will be represented by a record 15 shooters at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Tokyo Olympics-bound Indian athletes attended a cultural sensitivity workshop, named 'Omotenashi', on Thursday. Conducted by the Sports Ministry, 'Omotenashi' (the Japanese version of Atithi devo bhava) was organised by the Sports Authority of India, in association with the Indian Olympic Association.
India's national shooting federation on Wednesday said it will not allow its shooters to travel abroad for training due to the novel coronavirus threat and won't hesitate in pulling out of a Tokyo Olympics Test event in April if it becomes a health risk. Indian shooters are scheduled to travel to Tokyo to participate in the Olympic Test event slated to take place from April 16 to 26 in the Japanese capital, which will host the main event in July-August this year.
If only the shooters had found their targets, the story would have been so different! sighs Raj Kishore Mishra.
Sanjeev could have won the gold but for a poor last shot which saw him miss his second World Cup gold
Table tennis player Manika Batra, who will be conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award this year, said that the accolade would spur her to bring more laurels for the country.
India topped the medals tally ahead of hosts China (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), who won five medals in total.
Bhanwala, who had made history by winning a gold at the CWG in Gold Coast earlier this year, could not repeat Friday's fine qualification performance on the second day of qualification.
The abundance of talent is complemented by a confident approach which the likes of Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh, Anish Bhanwala and Anjum Moudgil will display at the Games.
Two-time Olympic champion Vincent Hancock of the USA won the men's skeet competition, the concluding event of the year's first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup.
The results ensured an unprecedented top finish for India across all four ISSF World Cup stages this year
Ace Indian sprinter Dutee Chand said the Arjuna Award will motivate her to win a prestigious Olympic medal at the Tokyo Games next year.
The gold rush continued for Indian shooters at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi as Ganemat Sekhon and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa claimed the skeet mixed team top honours on the fifth competition day on Tuesday.
Women formed the core of India's stupendous day four at the 21st Commonwealth Games where a 16-year-old Manu Bhaker delivered a record-shattering shooting gold medal and the table tennis team shocked fancied defending champions Singapore to clinch the top honours for the first time in the event.
Indian shooters bound for next year's Tokyo Olympics will resume their training from Wednesday following Sports Authority of India's decision to open the Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi, which was closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SAI said the full-intensity training of Indian shooters will start in a phased manner.
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