After disappointment in individual events, all hopes hinge on today’s mixed team competitions as Indian shooters look to salvage Tokyo campaign
Saurabh Chaudhary. Pic/AP, PTI
With India’s world leading air pistol and air rifle shooters having come a cropper in the individual events at the Tokyo Olympics so far, all hopes are now pinned on the mixed team events that will take place at the Asaka Shooting range today.
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Saurabh Chaudhary-Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma-Yashaswini Singh Deswal are India’s two pairs in the 10m air pistol mixed team, while Divyansh Singh Panwar-Elavenil Valarivan and Deepak Kumar-Anjum Moudgil will be the two pairs in the 10m air rifle mixed team events.
Teenagers Chaudhary and Bhaker, both 19, have been almost unbeatable in the 10m air pistol mixed team event ever since it was introduced recently by the ISSF to promote gender parity in the sport.
Manu Bhaker. Pic/PTI
Chaudhary-Bhaker have won an impressive five ISSF World Cup gold medals in the event—2019 and 2021 New Delhi, 2019 Beijing, 2019 Munich and 2019 Rio.
Bhaker, just like Chaudhary, was tipped to do well in the individual events too but a pistol malfunction led to a loss of valuable time during the qualification round and eventually saw her fail to make it to the finals.
At the 2021 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi earlier this year, Panwar-Valarivan also bagged the gold in the 10m air rifle mixed team event, proving they are in fine form too.
Most former India shooters are convinced that a medal in the mixed team event should not be difficult for India. “I am very confident about our medal chances in the mixed team events. Both India pairings [Panwar- Valarivan in 10m air rifle and Chaudhary-Bhaker in 10m air pistol] are very strong,” Anjali Bhagwat, the first Indian shooter to make it to an Olympic final (10m air rifle) at Sydney 2000 had told mid-day recently. “We have an edge in the mixed team events. 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,” India’s rifle shooting coach Suma Shirur told Olympics.com.
A total of 20 pairs will take part in the 10m air pistol qualifications with the challengers coming from Russia, Iran, China, France and Serbia.
The 10m mixed rifle event will see participation from 29 pairs with the biggest challenge expected from Hungary, Russia, USA, China and Germany.
In the first qualification round of both the events, there will be three series of 10 shots for each team member while in the second, members of the top eight pairs of the first round will shoot two series of 10 shots.
Also Read: Tokyo 2020: India men's archery team exit after losing to S Korea in quarters
With inputs from PTI
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