India ended their campaign at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a gold in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) mixed team competition, after Swapnil Kusale and Ashi Chouksey beat Ukranians Serhiy Kulish and Daria Tykhova 16-12, in the gold medal match.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
The novel coronavirus outbreak has prompted India to withdraw from next month's shooting World Cup in Cyprus, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) revealed on Friday.
Indian shooters ended their campaign at the International Shooting Sport Federation Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, at a creditable fourth position, finishing with three gold, four silver and three bronze.
The shooting World Cup scheduled to be held in two parts in New Delhi in May was on Monday cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The World Cup, originally scheduled to be held from March 15-26, was postponed to May barely four days before the start of the event.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) on Thursday agreed to NRAI's request for exchange of quota, paving the way for participation of Heena Sidhu in the women's Air Pistol event at the London Olympics.
The first gold medal of the competition went to Italy's Danilo Sollazzo in the men's 10m Air Rifle, beating Slovakia's Patrik Jany 16-14. Jani is a Tokyo Olympics finalist. Czech Republic's Jiri Privratsky won bronze.
The World Cup gold medallist took over the No. 1 spot in double trap shooting.
India closed their campaign on the fourth day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup winning a team bronze medal in the 25m pistol women's event in Suhl, Germany, on Wednesday.
Commonwealth Games gold medalist shooter Pemba Tamang was stopped by immigration officials in Mumbai from boarding a flight to Beijing as his passport had the 'invalid' stapled visa, which China issues to the Indians from Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
Come August 1 and India's champion double-trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi will become the world No 1 in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) rankings. The numero uno status will add to Sodhi's growing list of honours and achievements in recent years -- he recently won a bronze medal at the ISSF shotgun World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and its Athletes Committee headed by Abhinav Bindra, on Tuesday received brickbats from three-time Olympic medallist Rajmond Debevec, who said gender equality in the 2020 Olympic Games could have been achieved without scrapping the existing three events.
Legendary pistol marksman Jaspal Rana has expressed grave concerns over the delay in naming the Indian shooting contingent for the Paris Olympics.
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.
'There is a total stop on everything. Of course, production and export has taken a hit due to the bad situation in Europe'
The return of shooting, which was controversially dropped from the Birmingham CWG earlier this year, is a welcome development for India.
Olympic Association is yet to get an official confirmation about shooting being scrapped from the programme of 2022 Commonwealth Games but said it will ask the organisers to reconsider its decision.
Indian trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai got off to positive starts on day one of competition at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup at Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
The 22-year-old shooter jumped 18 places to take the top ranking in the in the men's 10m air rifle category.
India finished on top at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Suhl after Sift Kaur Samra and Surya Pratap Singh settled for a silver in the 50m rifle prone mixed team event
There was some cheer for India after two barren days as the duo of Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu triumphed in the 10 metre mixed team air pistol event of the ISSF World Cup.
Ace shooters Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu brought joy to the Indian squad competing at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rife/Pistol stage at Gabala, Azerbaijan, when they clinched gold in the 10m mixed team air pistol event by beating Russia 7-6 in the finals on Monday.
Bhaker shot 244.7 to claim the top prize in the prestigious season-ending tournament
Indian shooter Manavjit Sandhu rallied to third place after the second day of qualification in the Men's Trap Shooting event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup being held at Rio di Janerio's Olympic Shooting Centre.
Pournima Zanane had been suffering from cancer for the past two years and also underwent extensive treatment for the same.
India's teenage shooting stars Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary smashed the qualification World record before clinching the 10 metres air pistol mixed team gold in the 12th Asian Airgun Championship in Taoyuan, Taipei, on Wednesday.
India has promised to bear the cost of shooting and archery events at the Commonwealth Championships and wants the results to count towards the overall medal tally at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
'Scrapping titles like WIM, WGM and a separate women's category will kill women's interest in chess.'
From bitter fights to dope shame, Indian Olympic team's tryst with controversies
Abhishek Verma secured India's fifth Olympic quota place in shooting after winning the 10m air pistol gold medal at the ISSF World Cup, in Beijing, on Saturday. Participating in his maiden International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup final, the Indian led the field throughout the men's 10m air pistol final to clinch the top spot with a total score of 242.7.
Junior shooters deliver 2 gold, 1 silver for India at world championships
'I would say you have to give six months to a year to give the athletes to kind of even register that person is going (to the Olympics). People are struggling to find their kit. So, things could have been better.'
Hitting the target with monotonous regularity, Indian shooters' dominance in a phenomenal 2019, at times, made world events look like domestic tourneys. Indian shooting's best show at the Olympics remains the two medals won at London in 2012, but if the shooters' exploits in recent months are anything to go by, the country can easily emulate or better that in Tokyo.
The NRAI is also working on organising 'bilateral engagements for its Olympic squad' subject to approval of the government and the Sports Authority of India.
In a bizarre incident, a national-level shooter recently lost his left thumb when the 10m air pistol cylinder he was filling exploded, at the Karni Singh Range.
India's flag-bearer for Paris Olympics, Achanta Sharath Kamal, on Wednesday recalled the most memorable moments from his five appearances at the Games so far.
The ISSF said there will no ranking points in the tournament scheduled to be held from March 15 to 26 as the organisers are not in a position to guarantee participation of all athletes owing to the extraordinary situation.
NRAI said Indian government had given clearance for the applications, but that was before last Thursday's dastardly attack
Had Dhanush not been disqualified, India would have won the team gold with a junior Asian record. The shooter from Hyderabad could have also won an individual medal as he was placed third going into the finals.
