The Tokyo Olympics 2020 proved to be disastrous for the shooting contingent as Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant failed to qualify for the medal rounds of the 50m rifle three positions.
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The Indian shooting contingent in Tokyo Olympics 2020 continued to disappoint. Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant, who were the contenders in the 50m rifle three positions, put up a poor show. Moudgil finished 15th and Sawant ended up in a disappointing 33rd as India’s women’s challenge ended in shooting. With this result, only Aishwary Pratap Singh and Sanjeev Rajput are the only Indian men’s shooters in the fray. Their event, the 50m rifle three positions begins on August 2.
Anjum Moudgil, who had crashed out in the 10m air rifle individual and mixed events with disappointing performances, looked stronger than Sawant who is a veteran in this field of shooting. 11 years ago, Sawant became the world champion in the 50m rifle three positions event in Munich. She secured the Tokyo Olympics 2020 berth only because she had finished a strong fifth in the Asian Championship. But, in the Olympics, she struggled and never managed to fight back.
The 50m rifle three position is an event in which athletes shoot from three positions. They are kneeling, prone, and standing. The kneeling event is first, followed by the prone and standing. Every shooter will shoot four series in all three events. Every series will consist of 100 shots. This means that Athletes will have to hit a total of 300 shots in two hours and 45 minutes.
Sawant did not have a good start, registering only 97 in the first series in kneeling. But, it was the 92 in the second series which killed her chances. Sawant was languishing in the mid-table and the Indian shooter’s fortunes never recovered. Although she shot in the range of 97 to 98 in all the subsequent shots in kneeling and prone, Sawant did herself no favors as her standing shots saw scores of 94,93,95, and 94. The second series in the kneeling position saw Sawant score just 3 tens, which is far from ideal.
Sawant managed scores of 384 in kneeling, 394 in prone, and 376 in standing. The standing event in 50m air rifle three positions is low-scoring and that ensured Sawant did not have a chance of even reaching the top 10.
Moudgil, on the other hand, was in contention for some time. But, at the end of the day, the big-game pressure got to her.
Anjum Moudgil, for a brief period of time, was very much in top eight. At one point in time, she rose to even number six in the rankings. But, when the stakes became higher, it was a massive issue for Moudgil to bounce back.
Moudgil maintained consistency in the kneeling and prone positions. Her first 20 shots saw her register 17 10s. In the third series of kneeling, Moudgil had only six 10s and although she consistently shot nines, she remained in the fray. Things got better for Moudgil in the prone position as she hit a perfect 100 in the second series. Her consistency still gave her a chance of staying alive in the medal race.
However, it was in the standing position that Moudgil floundered. Her first shot of eight in the first series in standing hurt her immensely and dropped her out of the top 10. Other shooters were steadily improving, which meant Moudgil had no chance. In the subsequent two series, she shot only five and six 10s respectively and she slid further down the order. When Moudgil tried to come back with a 97 in the last series, she had finished 15th and well out of contention for a medal spot.
With this latest result, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 seems to have gone the way of Rio 2016 when it came to shooting. The 15-member contingent might have to come back empty-handed. There is only faint hope in Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sanjeev Rajput.
