Harpal Singh Bedi

New Delhi: A record 14 Indian ( Rifle and Pistol) shooters have made the cut to compete in the year-end International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Finals (WCF), scheduled to be held in Putian, China from 17-23 November .

Anjum Moudgil and Manu Bhaker are the only two among the 14 to have qualified for two events. Anjum made the cut in both the Women’s 10M Air Rifle and Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions event while Manu has qualified for the Women’s 10M Air Pistol and Women’s 25M Pistol events.

According to the ISSF, 35 nations have athletes qualified in the eight events after entries for each event have been increased from this year to 18 for each event from 12 earlier. All qualified athletes will also be able to take part in the Mixed Team events in Rifle and Pistol and get a shot at winning the President’s Trophy.

India have concluded the fourth and final ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol stage in Rio where they won five gold medals to top the tally with nine medals in all. In-fact Indian Rifle and Pistol shooters topped the medals tally at all four ISSF World Cup stages this year in a phenomenal performance, picking up a total of 22 medals with as many as 16 gold medals.

The ISSF WCF decides the rights for the best shooter of the year, in each of the eight Rifle/Pistol Olympic events.

The ISSF World Cup finals this year, will see the top 14ranked shooters based on their ISSF World Cup stage performances, take on the World Championship medalists and the defending champion in each of the events.

Shooters who made ISSF WCF grade:

. 10M Air Rifle Men- Divyansh Singh Panwar (World Cup Rank- WC-10)

. 50M Rifle 3 Positions Men- Akhil Sheoran (WC-9), Sanjeev Rajput (WC-10)

. 10M Air Pistol Men- Saurabh Chaudhary (WC-1), Abhishek Verma (WC-2) & Shahzar Rizvi (WC-9)

. 25M Rapid Fire Pistol Men- Anish Bhanwala (WC-6)

. 10M Air Rifle Women- Anjum Moudgil (World Championship Silver medalist), Apurvi Chandela (WC-1), Elavenil Valarivan (WC-8), Mehuli Ghosh (WC-10)

. 50M Rifle 3 Positions Women- Anjum Moudgil (WC-13)

. 10M Air Pistol Women- Yashaswini Deswal (WC-2), Manu Bhaker (WC-8)

. 25M Pistol Women- Rahi Sarnobat (WC-3), Manu Bhaker (WC-10)

HSB