Countdown to Tokyo Olympics: Meet India’s 50m Rifle Team

50m Rifle 3 Positions is the oldest firearm rifle event to be still held at the Olympics. It was first introduced at the Games in 1952. A separate event for women started in 1984.

India’s first-ever Olympic participation in the shooting also happened in this event in 1952 through Harihar Banerjee. Soma Dutta from this event in 1984 became the first female Indian shooter to compete at an Olympics.

No Indian till now however has reached the Olympic finals in 50m Rifle 3P. For the Tokyo Olympics India’s 50m Rifle Team will comprise 4 names, the highest ever. Here we take a look at all of them.

Men’s 50m Rifle 3P

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

Name	Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar
Date of Birth	3 February 2001
Birth Place	Ratanpur, Madhya Pradesh
Current World Ranking	2 (2021)
Sport/Event(s)	Shooting – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Major achievements	Gold at ISSF World Cup Delhi 2021 Silver at ISSF World Cup Delhi 2021 in 10m Air Rifle Team Bronze at ISSF World Cup Delhi 2021 in 50m Rifle 3P Mixed Team Bronze at Asian Shooting Championships (Individual and Men’s Team) Gold at ISSF Junior World Cup Suhl 2019 Bronze at Asian Championships 2019 in Junior Men’s 10m AR

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar was the only Indian rifle shooter to qualify for the finals at the ISSF World Cup held in Osijek, Croatia recently. This was after he won gold in his senior ISSF debut at Delhi 2021.

Judging by recent form, he certainly seems to be best placed among India’s 50m Rifle shooters to qualify for the Olympic finals.

Most of India’s new young shooters belong to airgun disciplines. Aishwary though bucked the trend and chose to specialize in the more rigorous 50m Rifle 3P. He announced his arrival by winning gold in the ISSF Junior World Cup at Suhl, Germany in 2019 and later qualified for Tokyo 2020 after winning bronze at the 2019 Asian Championships. He continued his consistent run post the pandemic break at Delhi and Osijek this year.

He is equally adept at 10m Air Rifle as was demonstrated in Croatia when he qualified for the finals ahead of Olympic selections Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar.

Sanjeev Rajput

Name	Sanjeev Rajput
Date of Birth	5 January 1981
Birth Place	Yamunanagar, Haryana
Current World Ranking	6 (2021)
Sport/Event(s)	Shooting – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Major achievements	Gold at ISSF World Cup Changwon 2011 Silvers at 2 ISSF World Cups (2016, 2019) Silver at ISSF World Cup Sydney 2010 in 10m Air Rifle Gold at Asian Shooting Championships 2012 Gold at Asian Shooting Championships 2013 in 50m Rifle Prone Silver at Asian Games 2018 Silver at Asian Shooting Championships 2007 Gold, Silver, and Bronze at Commonwealth Games (2018, 2014, 2006) Team Silver at Asian Games 2010 in 10m AR Team Bronze at Asian Games (2006, 2014)

Sanjeev Rajput is one of the last remnants of the generation of Indian shooters that included Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang. He will be making his 3rd Olympic appearance in Tokyo and 1st after London 2012. He is the only current Indian shooter to have participated in Beijing 2008.

His collection of international medals ranges from team bronzes at the 2006 Asian and Commonwealth Games to a silver at the ISSF World Cup at Rio 2019 that secured his Tokyo 2020 qualification. He has also competed in 10m AR but his focus in recent years has been firmly on 50m Rifle.

He had qualified for Rio 2016 but his quota was exchanged with Trap shooter Kynan Chenai before the Games. To do well in Tokyo, he will have to draw upon his wealth of experience and especially improve his scores in the standing series. In both Beijing and London, he had finished 26th in the qualifications.

Women’s 50 Rifle 3P

Anjum Moudgil

Name	Anjum Moudgil
Date of Birth	5 January 1994
Birth Place	Chandigarh
Current World Ranking	27 (2021)
Sport/Event(s)	Shooting – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team
Major achievements	Silver at 2018 World Championships in 10m Air Rifle Silver at ISSF World Cup Guadalajara 2018 Golds at 2 ISSF World Cups in 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team (2019) Silver at 2018 Commonwealth Games Bronze at Asian Junior Shooting Championships in 10m AR (2014)

Anjum Moudgil first shot into prominence by winning a silver at the ISSF World Cup Guadalajara in 2018 in 50m Rifle 3P. She followed it up with a silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the same event.

But by far the biggest moment of her career came in 10m Air Rifle at the 2018 World Championships. There she won a silver in both individual and team and was one of the first Indians to secure qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

She reached numerous 10m AR finals in 2018 and 2019 and won two golds in AR Mixed along with Divyansh Singh Panwar at the 2019 ISSF World Cups of Beijing and Munich.

But in 2019, another youngster in Elavenil Valarivan made an entry on the world stage by winning gold at 2 ISSF events including the World Cup Finals. The three-way competition between Anjum, Apurvi Chandela, and Elavenil for Olympic places was resolved by giving 10m AR individual places to the latter two with Anjum getting 50m Rifle 3P and Mixed AR paired with Deepak Kumar.

This turn of events seems to have dented Anjum’s confidence judging by her scores in recent months. She however did make it to the Delhi 2021 finals ahead of the duo. She will be hoping to rediscover her pre-pandemic form in Tokyo.

Tejaswini Sawant

Name	Tejaswini Sawant
Date of Birth	12 September 1980
Birth Place	Kolhapur, Maharashtra
Current World Ranking	28 (2021)
Sport/Event(s)	Shooting – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Major achievements	Gold at 2010 World Championships in Women’s 50 Rifle Prone Bronze at ISSF World Cup Munich 2009 in Women’s 50 Rifle Prone Gold at ISSF World Cup Delhi 2021 in 50m Rifle 3P Mixed Team 3 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 1 Bronze at Commonwealth Games (2006, 2010, 2018) Silver at Asian Shooting Championships 2005 in 10m AR First Indian woman to become a Shooting World Champion (2010)

Tejaswini Sawant’s name is revered in Indian shooting circles ever since she won gold and broke a glass ceiling for Indian women at the 2010 World Championships.

Tejaswini was already a renowned shooter before then – she had won an ISSF World Cup medal in 2009 and a few Commonwealth and Asian medals – but the 2010 Worlds win marked yet another landmark moment in Indian shooting history just 2 years after Abhinav Bindra’s Olympic gold.

The ensuing decade though was full of ups and downs; Tejaswini failed to qualify for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and had to miss many competitions due to personal reasons. She however refused to give up and retire. In 2018, she enjoyed a fairy-tale comeback after winning gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games and earned her first Olympic qualification through the 2019 Asian Championships.

Together with Sanjeev Rajput and Mairaj Ahmad Khan, she will be representing the old guard in a sport that has only got younger. She is an inspiration and role model for female Indian shooters including medal contender and fellow Kolhapuri Rahi Sarnobat.