Race to the top: All you need to know about Divyansh Panwar's wins and achievements
Panwar is regarded as one of the most prolific rifle shooters in the world and will be gunning for a podium finish at the Olympics
Divyansh Singh Panwar is yet to turn 20 but the teenager from Jaipur, Rajasthan is already turning heads in the world circuit with his precision and accuracy in the shooting range.
He is currently ranked no.2 in the world behind Hungarian Istvan Peni. He secured his Olympic berth by virtue of winning a silver in the ISSF World Cup held in Beijing in 2019 in his pet 10m air rifle event.
In a very short span of time, he has scaled to the top. He has won multiple medals in several international tournaments, both in individual and team events.
Let us take a look at all his wins and achievements in major international competitions before he gets into action at Tokyo 2020 on Sunday in the 10m Air Rifle event.
ISSF Junior World Cup
Panwar won two gold medals at the 2018 ISSF Junior World Cup and in both the events, a new world record was set. He won the junior men's team 10m air rifle event with Hriday Hazarika and Tushar Shahu by posting a score of 1875.3, which was a junior world record. Whereas, in the mixed team event, he won another gold partnering Elavenil Valarivan and posted a score of 498.6.
ISSF World Shooting Championships
In this competition at 2018, Panwar won bronze in the mixed team event in the junior category along with Shreya Agarwal. The duo occupied the fifth and final qualification spot among 42 teams with a score of 834.4 and went on to finish third behind the Italian pair of Soia Benetti and Marco Suppini and Iran's Sadeghian Armina and Mohammed Amir.
ISSF World Cup
2019 turned out to be a hugely successful year for Panwar. However, the start was far from ideal. He made his senior World Cup debut at his home turf in New Delhi but finished 12th in the qualification round with a score of 627.2. As a result, he could not even qualify for the finals. That was a clarion call for the teenager to pull his socks up or run the risk of getting branded as another athlete 'who could have but failed.'
Within two months' time, in Beijing, he proved his critics wrong and finished with a silver medal with a score of 249.0 which also secured his Olympic berth. At the same World Cup, he won gold in the mixed team event, alongside Anjum Moudgil.
In the next World Cup in Munich, the pair continued their juggernaut and successfully defended their title. However, in Rio World Cup they had to surrender their crown to compatriots Deepak Kumar and Apurvi Chandela and settle for bronze.
In the final World Cup of 2019 which was held in Putian China, Panwar came back with a bang. He won gold by defeating current world no.1 Istvan Peni by 0.1 point in a breathtaking final. In the mixed team event, Panwar partnered Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia and won gold whereas his former mate Moudgil had to remain content with silver along with China's Zhang Changhong.
In 2021, he has played in the New Delhi World Cup where he won bronze in his pet event and a gold in the mixed team event with Elavenil.
Although he has won many laurels in World Cups and World Shooting Championships, he feels that a certain H&M Cup in Munich was his toughest battle.
"It is an open competition. You get really high scores over there. Anyone can participate,” he explained.
“There were three-four Olympians and a couple of medal holders as well. That was really tough. Yet I performed well and got a medal. So that was really satisfying," he revealed to Olympics.com.
When does Divyansh Singh Panwar's Tokyo 2020 campaign start?
Panwar will participate in 10m Air Rifle event on July 25, Sunday. He will partner with Elavenil in the mixed team Air Rifle at Tokyo 2020 on July 27.