Suma Shirur: Indian shooters have an edge in mixed team events at Tokyo 2020

Four pairs of shooters will participate in mixed team events at Tokyo 2020 from India and coach Suma Shirur acknowledged that they do have an edge going into the competition.

Divyansh Singh Panwar-Elavenil Valarivan and Deepak Kumar-Anjum Moudgil will compete in the 10m Air Pistol mixed event which is scheduled for July 27th. Saurabh Chaudhary - Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma - Yashaswini Singh Deswal will participate in 10m Air Rifle mixed team event.

At the ISSF Shooting World Cup in New Delhi earlier this year, Saurabh Chaudhary – Manu Bhaker and Divyansh Singh Panwar – Elavenil Valarivan clinched gold in 10m Air Pistol and 10m Air Rifle events respectively. In Osijek World Cup in Croatia, which was the last major competition for shooters, Saurabh Chaudhary – Manu Bhaker won a silver medal in their 10m Air Pistol mixed team event.

"Well, we have an edge in the sense that we have two really strong pairs in each of the mixed events but so have many other countries. Shooters have been preparing for this for long. The Olympics are a year late remember and most of these guys were preparing for a year before,” Suma Shirur told Olympics.com.

India haven’t had much time to acclimatize to the weather conditions at Tokyo having spent the last two months in Croatia as part of their final preparations for the Olympics.

The 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist believes that the shooters have to adapt to the weather conditions. Shirur opined that the shooting contingent arrived well in time in Japan to get themselves acclimatized to the conditions in Tokyo.

"We got different weather in Croatia. In Zagreb, it was pleasant and windy while in Osijek it was hot. Here in Tokyo also it is hot, but we have come in well in time and have settled down. Athletes have to be prepared to compete in various weather conditions and we will do everything to ensure that the weather is the last thing on our mind,” she mentioned.