Indian shooters dominate 1st day of Junior World Championships
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Numerous Indian shooters qualified for the finals of each of the four airgun events after qualifications were held on the opening competition day of the 2021 ISSF Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru. Some of the big names that made the cut included Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh and Vijayveer Sidhu.
The Championships will provide an outlet for NRAI and Indian shooting to reclaim reputation after the Tokyo Olympics debacle even though some of the major shooting nations such as China, Russia and South Korea have chosen to not send any competitors.
Day 1 of the World Juniors nonetheless provided some hope for the future for the Indians.
10m Air Rifle Men Junior
India were virtually guaranteed a medal at the end of the very first qualification round of the Juniors. 5 of the 8 final slots in Men’s 10m AR Junior went to Indians. Three of them – Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Dhanush Srikanth and Paarth Makhija- scored 629.2 or above, a score that would have been good enough for the Tokyo Olympic finals.
Olympic champion Will Shaner of USA topped qualifications with 630.7, Rudrankksh being 0.5 points behind him. Rajpreet Singh and Yash Vardhan finished 5th and 6th. Danilo Sollazzo and Jesus Oviedo, the only other non-Indians, finished 7th and 8th, the latter scoring 625.9.
10m Air Rifle Women Junior
Mehuli Ghosh announced her return to the international arena with an impressive 630.9 that was good enough for 3rd place. Olympic finalists Oceanne Muller of France and Mary Tucker of USA finished 1st and 2nd with scores of 632.6 and 632.1 respectively.
Ramita (629.8) and Nisha Kanwar (629.1) were the other Indian qualifiers. Hungarian World Cup medalists Eszter Meszaros (628.7) and Eszter Denes (628.6) will provide further competition in a field that is decidedly stronger than the men’s event.
The Tokyo Olympics cut-off in this event was 628.5
The other two Indians in the fray Zeena Khitta (627.3) and Atmika Gupta (626.3) failed to make the cut.
10m Air Pistol Women Junior
Manu Bhaker was the biggest name in the 10m AP Women Junior field, but her 3rd-place score of 574 was overshadowed by Frenchwoman Camille Jedrzejewski’s 580 and compatriot Rhythm Sangwan’s 577.
Esha Singh (572) and Shikha Narwal (571) were the other two Indians to qualify from a low-scoring qualification round while Priya Muralidhar (564) was the only one to miss out. The finals cut-off score was 570. The cut-off score in the Tokyo Olympics was 577.
10m Air Pistol Men Junior
Indians had a field day in the Junior Men’s 10m AP qualifications even in the absence of ace shooter Saurabh Chaudhary. Naveen and Sarabjot Singh were the top two qualifiers with identical scores of 584.
Vijayveer Sidhu- who will also be a contender in Men’s 25m RFP- was 4th with 581 while Shiva Narwal, brother of Paralympic gold medalist Manish and fellow Juniors competitor Shikha, was 6th with 580. The cut-off score was 576. All 4 Indian scores would have been good enough for the 2020 Olympic finals.
Mohit Bhati (570) was the only Indian who did not qualify.
Skeet Junior Day 1
Ganemat Sekhon (67) and Raiza Dhillon (66) at 3rd and 4th place respectively were in qualification contention at the end of Day 1 of the Skeet Women Junior qualification round.
None of their male counterparts on the other hand were in the top 6 of their event with Rajveer Gill (68) at 10th being the highest placed Indian.
Day 2 will include finals of all 4 individual airgun events as well as Men’s and Women’s Skeet Junior finals.
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Niyati
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