ISSF WCH: Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil is the new World Champion in Men’s 10m Air Rifle

ISSF WCH: Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil is the new World Champion in Men’s 10m Air Rifle

India’s campaign at the 2022 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Cairo got off to the best possible start as Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil produced a stunning performance to win the senior World Championship title in Men’s 10m Air Rifle. He also won an Olympic quota for India for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the process.

This result puts Rudrankksh in the esteemed company of Abhinav Bindra who was thus far the only Indian to be World Champion in this discipline.

Qualification Round

The qualification round, featuring the world’s elite, was expected to be high-scoring from the start but a cut-off of 630 demonstrates the towering levels to which international competition has reached. 2016 Olympic silver medalist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine just missed out on qualifying after scoring 629.9.

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18-year old Rudrankksh was flawless right from the start. He simply carried on from his National Games form. There he had shot 630.7, here he did an even better 633.9 to top a table that included World and Olympic medalists. His score is likely to become the new Qualification World Record once ratified by the ISSF.

Another Indian Kiran Ankush Jadhav qualified 6th with an excellent 630.6. Arjun Babuta finished 48th with 625.3.

Ranking Round

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil
Rudrankksh during the match

In the ranking round, Rudrankksh was 3rd after the 1st series but dropped down to 4th after an average 2nd series. In the 3rd and 4th series however he put on one of the best displays by an Indian shooter in the finals of a major international competition. Two 10.8s, 10.7s, 10.6s and 10.5s and a 10.3 and 10.2 propelled him to the top of the board and ensured an Olympic quota for India.

Kiran meanwhile was eliminated 8th after the 3rd series.

The field included former World Champion Yang Haoran and Olympic silver medalist Sheng Lihao, both from China; former World Junior champion Amir Mohammad Nekounam of Iran and 50m Rifle 3P Olympic medalist Alexis Raynaud of France.

Rudrannksh seemed to ease off a bit after winning the quota; he dropped down to 3rd in the 5th and final series in face of a resurgent Lihao and a relentless Danilo Sollazzo.

Rudrankksh did have a share of luck in the final series; after being totally in control with two 10.8s and two 10.6s, Lihao scored just 10.1 in his final shot to finish 3rd, just 0.1 points behind the Indian. The Italian youngster Sollazzo placed 1st in the ranking round with 262.7; Rudrankksh ended up 2nd with 261.9 and both qualified for the gold medal match.

Gold Medal Match

Rudrankksh having a chat with his coach during the gold medal match

Sollazzo churned out 7 consecutive 10.5s+ shots in the beginning of the gold medal duel and took an 11-7 lead. A timeout chat with the coach Thomas Farnik however remarkably changed Rudrankksh’s fortunes; he bounced back to tie 13-13 after a 10.8 in the 13th series in response to Sollazzo’s 10.7. A 10.7 and 10.5 after that against the Italian’s 10.4 and 10.2 got Rudrankksh the title win that will be remembered in Indian shooting circles for years to come.

Women’s 10m Air Rifle: Mehuli just misses out

Mehuli Ghosh
Mehuli Ghosh

As stated before, international standards in shooting have reached dizzying heights. In the Women’s 10m AR competition at Cairo, the 8th-placed shooter shot 630 while the highest score was 633.6 by 2020 Olympic finalist Alison Marie Weisz of USA.

India’s Mehuli Ghosh placed 10th with 629.7, a valiant effort that was good but not good enough amid such intense competition. Meghana Sajjanar was 13th with an equally good 629.2; Olympian Elavenil Valarivan was 19th with 628.7. All 3 would have qualified at the 2018 World Championships where India had won 2 quotas in this event through Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela.

Weisz won the gold by beating China’s Huang Yuting 16-14 in a close duel. Another Chinese Zhang Yu won bronze.

Women’s 25m Pistol Team Junior

The Indian team of Esha Singh, Naamya Kapoor and Vibhuti Bhatia won bronze after beating the German team (Nina Alice Adels, Vanessa Seeger, Lydia Vetter) by a score of 17-1. China (Zizhao Luo, Sixuan Feng, Qianxun Yao) won gold by beating Korea (Minseo Kim, Yeseul Kim, Jiin Yang) 16-1.

Both Vibhuti and Esha scored 147 in the second qualification stage but Junior World champion Naamya could only manage 143 which ended any chances of a gold or silver. India finished 4th with a total of 437-17x and qualified for the bronze medal match.

Naamya did better in the bronze match and she and her teammates ensured an easy Indian win.

50m Rifle Prone Mixed Team Junior

India (Nischal, Surya Pratap Singh) lost 6-16 in the bronze medal match to USA (Katie Lorraine Zaun, Rylan William Kissel). China (Pang Yuqian, Du Linshu) defeated Czech Republic (Adela Zrustova, Vojtech Zaborec) 16-6 in the gold medal match.

The other Indian team of Nupur Kumrawat and Pankaj Mukheja finihed 8th in the second qualification stage and could not qualify for the medal rounds.