The third leg of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup for Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun gets underway at Rio di Janerio’s Olympic Shooting Centre range today. The venue, located in the Brazilian city’s Deodoro area, is part of one of three clusters where competitions for this year’s Rio Summer Olympic games will be held in August.
A total of 660 shooters from 88 various countries will be competing at the event, billed as a test event for the upcoming quadrennial extravaganza. No wonder then, that the best marksmen and women of the world have made a bee line for this World Cup, including all the World number ones of all the 15 Olympic Shooting events.
India has sent a 23-member strong team for the World Cup across the three disciplines of Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun. Among them are such star names such as former Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, Olympic medallist Gagan Narang, World number one in Men’s 50M Pistol Jitu Rai, world record holder and former world number one in Women’s 10M Air Pistol Heena Sidhu and former World Champion and World number one Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Commonwealth Games Gold medallist in Women’s 10M Air Rifle Apurvi Chandela.
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All of them will be relishing this opportunity to compete with the very best, at the very venue where they will be hoping that their dreams of an Olympic medal are realised come August.
A good show at the Rio World Cup, however, will be crucial for more reasons than one. To begin with every shooter feels comfortable coming back to a range where he or she has performed well. Additionally, a message will also go out to the other formidable rivals and Olympic medal contenders that the Indians are acclimatising well and that their preparations are on track.
Besides any issues with equipment, sighting and other such technicalities crucial for success at the highest level of this precision sport, can be sorted out well ahead of time. Which is why it becomes all the more important, particularly for the 12 shooters who have made it to the Indian Olympic squad for Rio, to be at their best in this World Cup.
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Apart from the stars already named, the other six shooters who have made the Olympic cut for India are Kynan Chenai (Men’s Trap), Chain Singh (Men’s Rifle), Gurpreet Singh (Men’s Pistol), P.N. Prakash (Men’s Pistol), Ayonika Paul (Women’s Rifle) and Mairaj Ahmed Khan (Men’s Skeet)
In fact, the Indian Shooting Stars have also built up some formidable rivalries over the year which will be worth watching and making a note of, especially with the Olympics in mind. Notable amongst these marquee matchups will be the one in the Men’s 10M Air Rifle between Abhinav Bindra of India, Matthew Emmons of the USA and Alin George MOLDOVEANU of Romania. Between them, they have won the last three Olympic titles in the event but all three of them are not in the top 10 of the world today.
However, this is the time when champions are known to peak. They will be trying to ward off stiff challenges from a couple of red hot Chinese shooters, though- the likes of World number one Yang Haoran and World number two Cao Yifei.
In the Men’s 50M Pistol event, India’s Jitu Rai, who is the reigning World number one in the event, has a great rivalry going on with Korea’s Jin Jongoh. One of them along with another Chinese pair of Pang Wei (World number two) and Wang Zhiwei (World number 3) are always seen on the podium for this event over the past three years or so.
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Jin of course, a triple Olympic Gold medallist is a legend of the sport in his own right and at the moment can claim all bragging rights. Pang Wei is also a former Olympic champion and Wang Zhiwei a former World Champion.
Among the women, India’s Apurvi Chandela in the 10m Air Rifle would be looking to lock horns again with Iran’s 20-year old class act Elaheh Ahmadi and Singapore’s Jasmine Ser. Elaheh and Apurvi were in at least two World finals last year together with each beating the other at least once. Jasmine beat Apurvi on home turf last year in the 8th Asian Air Gun Championship.
Of course, China’s World number one and former World and Olympic Champion Yi Siling is the legend in the field and will be the horse to beat. Elaheh currently is ranked number two, while Jasmine and Apurvi are ranked number seven and eight respectively.
It is evident therefore that while all sporting competitions in an Olympic year lose their sheen in comparison, this one from the point of view of Indian shooters, as indeed for the other shooters as well will be a notch above all ‘other’ competitions. Therefore, be prepared for some surprises . Nothing short of bull’s eye will be good enough in this one.
