NEW DELHI, Oct 26: India have concluded the 2022 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship with a much-improved showing over the previous all events ISSF World Championship held in Changwon, Korea, back in 2018.
The squad had finished third overall with 27 medals in Chagwon while in the current championship where the Shotgun worlds was held in Osijek, Croatia, followed by the Rifle/Pistol championship in Cairo, Egypt, India have won 38 medals and are placed second behind China in the combined medal tally.
From the point of view of Olympic quota places won, India have bagged three Paris 2024 Olympic quotas while they had won two Tokyo 2020 quota places from the Changwon 2018 worlds.
Even from the perspective of Olympic events, India had a silver at the Changwon Worlds while this year they have improved that to gold, won by Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle competition. Besides the quota won by Rudrankksh, Swapnil Kusale won a quota in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P), a first for India in the event at the Worlds and Bhowneesh Mendiratta won a quota in the Men’s Trap in Osijek.
India’s final competitor at the Cairo Worlds, Omkar Singh, shot a 578 to finish 13th in the Men’s 25m Centre Fire Pistol event on Tuesday. Former Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany shot 588 to win gold.
Some other notable performances in Olympic events, which featured many new faces and first-timers, saw Rhythm Sangwan finish fifth in the 25m Pistol Women, Anjum Moudgil finish sixth in the Women’s 3P and Shiva Narwal finish eighth in the 10m Air Pistol Men.
Esha Singh emerged the most successful Indian shooter with three gold and one silver medal followed by Sameer Gulia who won two silver and two bronze medals. Rudrankksh, Ramita and Samrat Rana also won two gold medals each and Vijayveer Sidhu defended his 25m Standard Pistol Men Junior title while also picking up a bronze medal. (IANS)
