After winning three medals in the ISSF World Cups in Munich and Slovenia recently, in-form Indian shooter Jitu Rai was eleveated to the world's number one ranking in the air pistol event. The 27-year-old armyman from Lucknow is the seventh Indian shooter to achieved the No 1 ranking.
Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra made the cut, but London Games bronze winner Gagan Narang failed to qualify in the 10-metre air rifle event for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
The Indian pair shot a total of 483.5 to finish on top of the podium at the ISSF World Cup.
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's schedule on Day 1 of competition at the Asian Games in Incheon.
Manu Baker won two gold medals in as many days on a World Cup debut
A star-studded Indian shooting contingent will begin their Rio Olympics campaign on Saturday with in-form Jitu Rai hoping to launch the country's medal haul in an event which will also see his more illustrious senior colleague Abhinav Bindra aiming to end his glorious career on a high.
India's Pooja Ghatkar continued her good run, registering her second 4th place finish of the year in a World Cup stage on day three of the sixth and final International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun) at Baku, Azerbaijan on Friday.
India's sports fraternity joined the nation on Sunday in saluting its essential services providers engaged in the fight against COVID-19 by clapping for them and sharing messages and videos of gratitude on social media.
Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu got the nod ahead of Sanjeev Rajput as the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced its final shooting squad of 12 for the Rio Olympic Games in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill to regulate and supervise assisted reproductive technology clinics, with various members urging the government not to exclude single parents and the LGBTQ community from using this procedure.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has come up with a proposal to set up a special committee, to be headed by Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, to carry out a comprehensive review of the shooters' below-par performance at the Rio Games. Indian shooters proved to be an epic failure in a disastrous Rio Olympic Games as the 12-member team, with the exception of Bindra, failed miserably to live up to the sky-high expectations. This has left the country's shooting fraternity highly disappointed.
Scotland Yard, which is probing the circumstances around the 'unexplained' death of an Indian-origin lab technician and her two daughters in London, fear the use of a "poisonous gas concoction" that could have been made by the mother herself.
It is the two women directors in Shuruaat Ka Twist who end up making the best films, feels Sreehari Nair.
India's top pistol shooter Heena Sidhu is hoping funds sanctioned to her by the government as part of its TOP scheme for her Olympic preparations are released on time. "Going into the Olympics, I hope that the funds meant for my preparation will be released on time so that my training doesn't suffer. There are lot of paperwork, it's a long process normally. OGQ has been doing a lot too," Sidhu said on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi on Thursday. The current world record holder and former world No. 1 secured an Olympic quota for the country in January after she led from start to claim gold medal in women's 10-m air pistol at the last Asia Olympic Qualifiers for Shooting. Asked about her preparation, she said," I am just following the process. This is not the time to make changes in your game. There will be a test event in Rio in April, and I will get an understanding after that if I need to make any minor adjustments or not. The climate in India and Brazil are similar."
Bindra said that the official team manager left the athletes "to fend for themselves".
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.
India's Gagan Narang and Chain Singh will be vying for a spot in the finals of the men's 50m Rifle Prone event after coming through unscathed in the elimination rounds on day six of the ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
Vijay Kumar, Heena Sidhu, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Ronjon Sodhi are some of the shooting stars who will fancy their chances when Delhi hosts the final Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition, where 35 tickets to Rio will be up for grabs from January 25 to February 3.
Wrestler Geeta Phogat says she is both excited and nervous about the Olympics in London, a city she has never seen before. But even if she does not win gold, her success has inspired girls in and around her village.
Olympics-bound pistol shooter Heena Sidhu had appealed to the government to sanction funds to enable her train in earnest for the 2012 London Games Olympics.
Jitu Rai pipped three-time Olympic champion Jongoh Jin of Korea to clinch the silver medal at the ISSF Shooting World Cup, in Baku, on Saturday.
The women's Air Pistol team of Annu Raj Singh, Shweta Chaudhry and Heena Sidhu finished ahead of the formidable Chinese by just a point to win the gold, while veteran Raj Kumari bagged India's second gold of the day, winning the 50m women's prone by a comfortable margin the Asian Championships.
The International Shooting Sport Federation plans to introduce mixed events in air pistol, air rifle and trap for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to help achieve the IOC's goal of 50 percent female participation in the Olympics Games
India opened its medal account with a gold each in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed and 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team events on the third day of competitions at the ISSF Shooting World Cup.
Following is the schedule of Indian contingent on the sixth day of the Asian Games.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
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.
'An example is mixed pair test event over here in air pistol (which Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu won). So we have the best chance of picking up an extra medal in the two air events. That's why I believe it is in our interest, this change. I am not worried about it'
Amidst controversies, the National Sports Awards were presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday.
Olympic medallist Vijay Kumar has missed out on a berth in his pet event - rapid fire pistol - for the upcoming Asian Games, but is still part of the 43-member squad, which will be spearheaded by shooting ace Abhinav Bindra.
Indian shooters won a bronze in the women's air pistol team event on the concluding day on Monday to end the third Asian Air Gun Championship at Doha with eight medals, including three gold.
For Sweta, this was the worst ever performance despite winning the gold in women's 10m air pistol finals.
The events on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5 of the Games were well captured and here we document all the action from Day 6, in pictures...
Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang won a silver medal in the men's 50m rifle prone event of the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Brisbane.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar opined that athletes will suffer if India boycotts Commonwealth Games (CWG).
Check out India's schedule on Day 6 of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, on Tuesday.
The celebrities came to pay their condolences.
India's pistol ace Jitu Rai displayed good form to sail through to the qualification round of the men's 50-metre pistol event on the opening day of the ISSF World Cup in Munich on Saturday.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju says the Indian Olympic Association cannot take a unilateral decision about pulling out of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games following the omission of shooting from the event's roster.
