ISSF World Cup shooting: Manu Bhaker among big names missing from Indian team
Abhishek Verma, Apurvi Chandela and five other Tokyo 2020 Olympians also failed to meet the selection criteria for the World Cup in Cairo.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), on Thursday, announced a 24-member Indian team for the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2022 to be held in Cairo, Egypt, from February 26.
The season’s first World Cup, for pistol and rifle shooters, will see several Tokyo 2020 Olympians, including Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma, missing from the Indian team.
From the 13 pistol and rifle shooters who represented India at Tokyo 2020, only Saurabh Chaudhary, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat, Aishwarya Pratap Tomar and Sanjeev Rajput were selected for the Cairo meet.
Since the national selection trials in January were postponed due to COVID-19, NRAI’s selection committee ranked the shooters based on qualification scores and their final ranking points at the national championships in November-December last year.
Only the top three shooters in each event, with Minimum Travel Scores (MTS), have been selected for individual and team events at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo.
Besides Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil, Elavaneil Valarivan, Deepak Kumar, Tejaswini Sawant and Yashaswini Singh Deswal were the other Tokyo Olympians who failed to meet the selection criteria.
Manu Bhaker missed out on the spot despite winning the national championships in 10m air pistol as she stood fourth in the overall rankings.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, India will have only two shooters - Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanka Sadangi - instead of three as the third-ranked Apurvi Chandela could not meet the MTS requirement of 1168 points.
Shooters Sanjeev Rajput (50m rifle 3 positions) and Pradhyumn Singh (10m air pistol), stood fourth in the overall rankings with the same average score and have been given an exception.
Among the newcomers who will be looking to establish themselves ahead of the world championships and Asian Games scheduled later this year, will be the medallists from the ISSF Junior World Championships 2021 in Peru, including pistol shooter Esha Singh and rifle shooter Rudranksh Balasaheb Patil.
A national camp prior to the team’s departure to Egypt on February 25 will be held at Karni Singh shooting range in New Delhi from February 9.
The teams will be accompanied by six coaches and two physios to Cairo, which is also the venue for the shooting world championships later this year. The competition will conclude on March 8.
Indian squad for the ISSF World Cup 2022 in Cairo
50m rifle 3 positions men: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran, Kiran Ankush Jadhav, Sanjeev Rajput
10m air rifle men: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rudrankksh Balasajeb Patil, Srinjoy Datta
25m rapid fire pistol men: Anish, Bhavesh Shekhawat, Gurpreet Singh
10m air pistol men: Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve, Saurabh Chaudhary, Gaurav Rana, Pradhyumn Singh
10m air rifle women: Shreya Agrawal, Aayushi Gupta, Rajshree Sancheti
10m air pistol women: Esha Singh, P Shri Nivetha, Ruchita Vinerkar
25m pistol women: Rhythm Sangwan, Esha Singh, Rahi Sarnobat
50m rifle 3 positions women: Sift Kaur Samra, Shriyanka Sadangi
10m air pistol mixed team: Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve-Esha Singh, Saurabh Chaudhary-P Shri Nivetha
10m air rifle mixed team: Divyansh Singh Panwar-Shreya Agrawa, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil-Aayushi Gupta
25m rapid fire pistol mixed team: Anish-Rhythm Sangwan, Bhavesh Shekhawat-Esha Singh
50m rifle 3 positions mixed team: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar-Sift Kaur Samra, Akhil Sheoran-Shriyanka Sadangi