Shooters Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal, and Divyansh Singh are among few Indians, who will be in action on Sunday.
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The Indian shooting contingent will have another chance to open their medal count in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Sunday, with some of the country’s biggest names competing. Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Deswal line-up in the women’s 10M Air Pistol qualifiers in the morning session, while in the afternoon, Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar will compete in the men’s 10M Air Rifle event. The qualification round for women’s Pistol begins at 5.30 am IST while the finals are scheduled for 7.45 am IST. The men’s Rifle qualifiers start at 9.30 am IST with the finals being scheduled for 12 noon IST.
The women will be looking to break the 580 mark as the bare minimum, to strengthen their claims for a finals spot. The top eight will qualify from the 53-woman field after 60-shots are fired in 75 minutes. The men’s 10M Air Rifle has a 47-man draw and will also have a 60-shot qualification round, but with decimal scoring in place, the comfort score is around 630 to ensure a finals berth. Yashaswini and Manu go into the competition as world numbers one and two respectively, while Divyansh is world number two in men’s 10M Air Rifle event as his senior compatriot Deepak Kumar ranks 11th currently.
The favourites will be Anna Korakaki (Greece), reigning World and 25M Pistol Rio Champion, Vitalina Batsarashkina (Russian Olympic Committee), Rio Silver medallist in the event, Olena Kostevych (Ukraine), former Olympic and World Champion, and Zorana Arunovic (Serbia), former world champion.
They will also face a strong challenge from Monika Karsch (Germany), Carina Wimmer (Germany), Celine Goberville (France), and Veronika Major (Hungary). Jiang Ranxin (China), Kim Bomi (Korea), Viktoria Chaikha (Belarus), and Wu Chai Ying (Chinese Taipei) are also ones to keep an eye on.
The favourites in this category will be Sergey Kamenskiy (ROC), reigning world champion, Vladimir Maslenikov (ROC), Rio bronze medallist in the event, Istvan Peni (Hungary), world number one, Yang Haoran (China), Asian Games champion, and Serhiy Kulish (Ukraine), Rio silver medallist in the event. They will face a tough challenge from Nam Taeyun (Korea), Martin Strempfl (Austria), Milenco Sebic (Serbia), Lucas Kosiniesky (USA) and William Shaner (USA).
The action also begins for the Shotgun disciplines in shooting at the Asaka Shooting Range on Sunday, day two of the Tokyo Olympics. India’s Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa will attempt to qualify for the medal rounds of the men’s Skeet competition.
Sunday will be day one of qualifying in men’s Skeet which will have three of the five 25-shot rounds being played out from 6 am IST through the day. Day two, Monday, has the final two rounds before the top six make it to the 60-shot final (Monday, 12.20 pm IST).
Mairaj, now in his second Olympics, and Angad, making his debut, have been training in Italy in the build-up to the Games. It is a strong Olympic field of 30 and the two Indian shooters will have their task cut out to make it to the medal round. In Skeet, clay targets are thrown in a particular order for each of the eight shooting stations set on a semi-circular field from two “High House” and “Low House” strategically placed throwing machines. A total of 25 such targets are thrown in one series.
