A look back at India's journey at ISSF World Cup

The Indian shooting contingent has been a part of the ISSF World Cup since its first edition in 1986. Since 2018, Indian shooters have been consistently bagging medals at the World Cups.

With the ISSF World Cup 2021 starting in New Delhi on the 18th of March, let's have a look back at India's journey at this prestigious tournament over the years.

India's first ISSF World Cup medal came in 1986

India won its first-ever medal at the ISSF World Cup in 1986. India's 50m Rifle 3 positions shooter Soma Dutta pocketed the silver medal at the World Cup in Seoul, South Korea.

Even though it was a great start for the country, it took years for India to win its first-ever gold medal. In 2003, 10m Rifle Shooter Anjali Bhagwat won the first-ever gold for India at the ISSF World Cup, Fort Benning, USA.

Heena Sindhu then became the first Indian pistol shooter to clinch a gold medal at the 2013 ISSF World Cup.

Heena Sindhu

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, India's first-ever Olympic medalist shooter, has won two golds and one bronze medal in the double trap event at the ISSF World Cups.

In the 10m Air Rifle event, London Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang leads legend Abhinav Bindra with two golds and four bronze medals. The Olympic gold medalist Bindra has just a couple of bronze medals from the ISSF World Cups.

Olympic silver medalist Vijay Kumar has collected two silver medals in the pistol event at the ISSF World Cups.

Meanwhile, Mairaj Ahmad Khan made history in 2016 when he became the first-ever Indian shooter to win an ISSF World Cup medal in the skeet event. Even though he missed out on the gold, the silver medal gave a huge boost to the skeet category, where India hasn't had much success earlier.

India topped the medal tally at the 2019 ISSF World Cups

Manu Bhaker, 10m Air Pistol Shooter

The 2019 ISSF World Cups saw some memorable performances from the Indian shooting contingent. India won 30 medals that year and topped the medal tally at the ISSF World Cups.

The ISSF conducts four air pistol/rifle and four shotgun World Cups every year, with one World Cup final every alternative year.

The Indian shooting squad won a total of 21 gold, 6 silver, and 3 bronze medals across the ISSF World Cups in 2019.

A look at the winners of ISSF World Cups 2019:

Rifle event

10m Air Rifle Men - Divyansh Singh Panwar (Gold-1, Silver-1)

10m Air Rifle Women - Apurvi Chandela (Gold-2), Elavenil Valarivan (Gold-2)

50m Rifle, 3 positions Men - Sanjeev Rajput (Silver-1)

Pistol event

10m Air Pistol Men - Saurabh Chaudhary (Gold-2, Bronze-1), Abhishek Verma - (Gold- 2)

10m Air Pistol Women - Manu Bhaker (Gold-1), Yashaswini Singh Deswal (Gold-1)

25m Pistol Women - Rahi Sarnobat (Gold-1)

Mixed Team event

10m Air Pistol - Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker (Gold-4), Manu Bhaker (Gold-1), Saurabh Chaudhary (Silver-1)

10m Air Rifle - Divyansh Singh Panwar and Anjum Moudgil (Gold- 2, Brzone-1), Deepak Kumar and Apurvi Chandela (Gold- 1, Silver-1), Divyansh Singh Panwar (Gold-1), Apurvi Chandela (Silver-1)

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World rankings of Indian shooters

The shooters across the world get their rankings according to their performances at the ISSF World Cups. India is currently leading the ranks in some of the events.

Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan currently hold the No. 1 rank in the 10m Air Rifle men's and women's categories respectively.

In the 10m Air Pistol event, Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma are at the second spot in the men's and women's sections respectively.

The Indian shooters were at their peak in 2019 and were all set to hit the bull's eye at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which unfortunately got postponed due to COVID-19.

Fifteen Indian shooters have already claimed Olympic quotas. India will look to add to that number at the first combined ISSF World Cup, starting on Thursday.