ISSF World Cup: Vijayveer wins silver, Anish Bhanwala misses Tokyo spot

India’s Vijayveer Sidhu won the silver medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi on Friday, but India’s Olympic hope in the event – Anish Bhanwala – failed to secure a berth to Tokyo after finishing fifth.

A total of three Indian shooters – Vijayveer, Anish and Gurpreet Singh – made it to the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol final at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. They were joined by Estonia’s Peeter Olesk, Poland’s Oskar Miliwek and Peru’s Marko Carrillo.

Barring Carrillo, all the remaining shooters were in the hunt for a quota at the Tokyo Olympics through world rankings and a gold medal would have helped their cause. A silver would have been enough if Carrillo won the event.

Anish Bhanwala, ranked 12th in the world, was the best placed among the five competing shooters. The 18-year-old youngster, though, faltered under pressure and exited the final early.

Following Gurpreet’s elimination after series four of the finals, Anish needed to shoot a five out of five to stay in contention. But he managed only a three and ended in fifth position, which ended his chances of winning a Tokyo quota.

Vijayveer, meanwhile, kept the fight going until the final moments. Having qualified for the finals after a clutch performance in the final minutes of the qualifying rounds, Vijayveer looked in good form in the finals and kept pace with Peeter Olesk.

The 18-year-old Vijayveer Sidhu shot a four out of five in the eighth series to tie the Polish shooter at 26 points but failed to win the gold in the shoot-off.

Gold medals in rifle events

Earlier in the day, India’s Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini Sawant clinched the gold medal at the 50m Rifle 3 Positions mixed team event after beating Ukraine’s Serhi Kulish and Anna Ilina 31-29 in the gold medal match.

Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini Sawant, both Tokyo Olympics quota winners, had earlier placed first in qualification 2 after shooting 588 points.

The other Indian team in the event, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Sunidhi Chauhan, meanwhile, placed fourth after the qualifiers with 580 to set up a bronze medal match against USA’s Timothy Sherry and Virginia Thrasher.

Aishwarya and Sunidhi beat the Americans 31-15 to join Rajput and Tejaswini at the podium.

India bagged another gold medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions men’s team event. Swapnil Kusale, Chain Singh and Niraj Kumar defeated the American team of Nickolaus Mowrer, Patrick Sunderman and Timothy Sherry 47-25 for the top honours.

It was India’s 12th gold at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi.

In the men’s individual Trap event, India’s Kynan Chenai managed to qualify for the finals but had to settle for a fifth-placed finish. Spain’s Alberto Fernandez won gold in the discipline. In the women's individual trap, there was no Indian representation in the finals.

Lead photo: SAI Media