ISSF WC: India miss out on bronze in Trap Mixed team; Shooting Nationals postponed

ISSF WC: India miss out on bronze in Trap Mixed team; Shooting Nationals postponed
Kynan Chenai/Getty

On the penultimate day of the ISSF WC in Delhi, India’s Kynan Chenai and Shreyasi Singh lost 35-38 to the Turkish team of Yavuz Ilnam and Safiye Sariturk in the bronze medal match of the Olympic Trap Mixed team event. It would have been India’s first medal in the Trap competitions at Delhi had the duo been successful.

Yavuz Ilnam was the MVP of the match, the main factor behind Turkey’s win. He missed only 2 targets out of 25 while the other 3 shooters showed various degrees of inconsistency.

In the gold medal match, Italy (Valerio Grazini and Alessia Iezzi) prevailed over Slovakia (Zuzana Stefecekova and Adrian Drobny) by a score of 39-36. Both the teams featured a medal winner from the individual finals held yesterday. Ironically the 2 podium placers Grazini and Stefecekova had an off day and it was up to former Junior World Champion Alessia Iezzi to rescue the day for Italy. Her only missing 4 targets compared to the more celebrated Stefecekova’s missing 9 proved decisive in the end.

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25m Rapid Fire Pistol Mixed Team

Gold and silver were guaranteed for India once it was known that no other country would be featuring a team in the 25m RFP mixed competition at Delhi. The only question was which Indian duo would be on the top of the podium.

In the end Vijayveer Sidhu and Tejaswani scored an easy 9-1 victory over Gurpreet Singh and Abhidnya Ashok Patil. Though Vijayeer did get a coveted gold in the end, he would have much rather preferred getting it yesterday when the stakes were a lot higher.

Shooting Nationals postponed

The 64th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) slated for April have been postponed till after the Tokyo Olympics, the NRAI announced yesterday. The decision was taken owing to the ever-increasing COVID19 cases in the country.

The Nationals would have been a final chance for shooters to make their cases for Olympic selection, especially in the 10m Air Rifle and Women’s 25m Pistol competitions. The selectors will seemingly now rely on results from the selection trials and the ongoing Delhi World Cup.

Some of the quota winners such as Apurvi Chandela, Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil haven’t been in the greatest of form in recent times and the Nationals would have given them a final shot at redemption. The postponement now creates a further dilemma for the shooters and selectors.