Sift races ahead on road to Paris
The 20-year-old's top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year's World Championships.
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.
Sanjeev could have won the gold but for a poor last shot which saw him miss his second World Cup gold
Two-time Olympian and India's shining light in skeet shooting Mairaj Ahmad Khan won the country's and his first-ever individual gold in the event, shooting 37 hits out of a possible 40 in the final at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea.
Young Indian shooter Nischal won the silver medal in the women's 50 metre Rifle 3 Positions at the ISSF World Cup, in Rio De Janeiro, on Monday. It was India's second medal on the concluding day of the tournament.
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.
India will send 117 athletes to the Paris Olympics, starting July 26 in the French capital. This will be India's second-biggest contingent at an Olympic Games after 121 athletes went to Tokyo in 2021. A total of 47 female and 70 male athletes will be part of the Indian contingent at the Games.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 6, Thursday, August 1, 2024:
The Indian pair shot a total of 483.5 to finish on top of the podium at the ISSF World Cup.
Indian shooters ruled the roost for the fourth successive day as they made a clean sweep of all the six gold medals on offer in the 12th South Asian Games, in Guwahati, on Saturday.
Manu Bhaker claimed the gold medal in the women's 10am air pistol, while birthday boy Deepak Kumar gifted himself a bronze medal in men's 10m air rifle at the 14th Asian Championship.
Elavanil finished 16th while the more experienced Apurvi settled for the 36th place
Then, in the 10m air pistol mixed team competitions, India's top pair comprising Manu Bhaker and Chaudhary too came overall second among 43 pairs, shooting a combined score of 580 out of a possible 600.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
The Indian trio shot a total of 17 to beat Poland's Joanna Iwona Wawrzonowska, Julita Borek and Agnieszka Korejwo who scored 7 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
The Meerut-based Rizvi shot a world record 242.3 in the 10m air pistol event's final to beat reigning Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany (239.7) to win the top prize.
In the other highlight of the day, all three Indians made it through their elimination relays in the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) competition, which has four Paris 2024 Olympics quota places at stake.
On Sunday, the Women's 25m Pistol Team won a silver and the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) team won a bronze, even as India ended their Paris 2024 Olympics quota quest at two from the championship. Their tally now stands at 12 gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, as per a press release from the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
India jumped on top of overall medal standings at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship, adding with six more medals to their kitty on Day 6 of the competition in Kuwait City.
A summary of the country's athletes' showing at the Games on Saturday, July 31.
The committee also picked 19 sportspersons for the Arjuna Award, including the likes of cricketers Ravindra Jadeja and Poonam Yadav, track and field stars Tejinder Pal Singh Toor, Mohammed Anas and Swapna Barman.
A look at Indian athletes' showing at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, July 27.
But new faces, such as world champion 10m air rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil, Esha Singh (10m air pistol), Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey (50m rifle 3-positions) are some of the brightest prospects in the team with a potential to aim for gold, notwithstanding the extremely tough challenge the Chinese will pose in the coming fortnight.
Indian pistol shooters, on Wednesday, pulled off a clean sweep in the 10m air pistol event at the Commonwealth Shooting Championship with Shahzar Rizvi, Omkar Singh and Jitu Rai winning gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.
Birthday wishes poured in for the Prime Minister.
India's shooter Apurvi Chandela had a gold medal in her grasp before a slip up in the 19th shot pushed her outside the medal bracket at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol stage.
Ankur Mittal claimed the men's double trap gold medal in the ISSF World Championship for his career's biggest triumph, as the Indian shooting team continued its dominance in the premier shooting tournament.
Dangi and Tomar made it an India 1-2 in qualifications early in the morning with scores of 588 and 583 from the 60-shot round.
Eating 'tasteless' supplements, undergoing breathing exercises and yoga is not something a teenager would love to do daily but that is the routine of shooter Ramita Jindal who has emerged as a star for India in the Asian Games.
Bhanwala dedicated the medal to his personal coach Harpreet Singh.
The upcoming combined shooting World Cup in New Delhi was on Friday postponed, while an Olympic test event in Tokyo stood cancelled due to the global novel Coronavirus outbreak. The decision comes after the government imposed several restrictions on the entry of travellers from affected countries such as China, Italy, South Korea, Japan and Iran, in a bid to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
India's ace shooter Manu Bhaker on Tuesday received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a government hospital in Jhajjar, Haryana, three months before the Tokyo Olympics where she will enter as one of India's brightest medal hopes.
The team will be accompanied by six coaches -- Deepali Deshpande, Samaresh Jung, Manoj Kumar, DS Chandel, Ronak Pandit and Ved Prakash -- and two physios.
India now have three gold, three silver and three bronze medals after four days of competition.
Rahi Sarnobat, on Wednesday, became the first Indian woman shooter to win an Asian Games gold medal as she triumphed after prevailing in a double shoot-off in the 25m pistol event in Palembang.
India's schedule at the Asian Games: Day 4
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.
India's tally in the premier tournament is 32 medals, including 12 gold, eight silver and 12 bronze.
The results ensured an unprecedented top finish for India across all four ISSF World Cup stages this year
