ISSF World Cup 2022 Cairo: Indian shooters draw blank in 10m air rifle
The three men and three women Indian shooters, including Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar, failed to reach the semi-finals of their respective events.
India’s Shreya Agrawal narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 10m air rifle event in Cairo, Egypt on Monday.
Competing on the second day of the season’s first ISSF World Cup for rifle and pistol shooters, Shreya Agrawal shot a total of 629.3, which was 0.1 less than eighth semi-finalist Eszter Meszaros of Hungary.
As per the new rules applied for the first time at the shooting World Cup in Cairo, the top eight shooters qualify for the semi-finals, instead of direct finals, in the 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol individual events.
The top eight are then split into two groups of four shooters. The top two from each group then progress to the gold medal match.
The other two Indians in the women’s air rifle field comprising 117 shooters - Aayushi Gupta and Rajshree Sancheti - finished at distant 37th and 54th positions, respectively.
Aayushi Gupta scored 626.1 while Rajshree Sancheti shot 624.3 during the qualifying round.
On Monday, none of the three Indian men competing in the men’s 10m air rifle event made it to the semi-final stage either.
While Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil shot 628.5 to finish at a creditable 11th, Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar ended 25th with a score of 626.8 and Srinjoy Datta shot a total of 616.6 to finish 82nd among 103 competitors.
Next up will be India’s men’s and women’s teams competing at the 10m air pistol shooting events on Tuesday.
Youth Olympic champion Saurabh Chaudhary will lead the Indian challenge at the 10m air pistol shooting event along with Gaurav Rana and Sarabjot Singh.
In the women’s event, India’s Esha Singh, Shri Nivetha and Ruchita Vinerkar will look to break into the top eight to qualify for the semi-finals.
The nine-day championship event has 24 Indians, without reigning junior world champion Manu Bhaker, competing across individual and team medal events.
Over 500 athletes from 60 nations have entered to take part in the ISSF World Cup.