World Championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil has been deprived of a chance to compete in air rifle in the Tokyo Olympics, and the honour has been bestowed on World No. 1 Elavenil Valarivan.
Quota swapped
In the selection committee meeting held on Sunday, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) opted to swap the quota won by Chinki Yadav in women’s 25-metre sports pistol with Anjum in order to facilitate the latter to compete in the rifle 3-position event along with Tejaswini Sawant.
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Chinki had won the gold in the recent World Cup.
Anjum will also get to shoot in the mixed air rifle event along with Deepak Kumar.
Elavenil and Divyansh Singh Panwar have been named as the first team for mixed air rifle.
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Manu Bhaker will shoot air pistol and sports pistol apart from the mixed air pistol event with Saurabh Chaudhary.
Phenomenal year
Olympian Apurvi Chandela who has had a phenomenal year in 2019 winning two World Cup gold medals, with world record to boot, will shoot only air rifle and not the mixed event.
“The National selection committee’s main focus was to select the strongest squad for the Games and to ensure that the most consistent performers in each event, during the Olympic cycle, do not miss out.
“We are confident that these shooters will deliver,” said the NRAI president Raninder Singh in a statement.
The reserves have been announced for each event, considering the uncertain global scenario with the pandemic.
The reserves will get to train on par with the Olympic bound athletes in the run up to the Games.
The team (along with reserves):
Men: 10m air rifle: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Deepak Kumar.
Reserves: Sandeep Singh, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.
50m rifle 3-position: Sanjeev Rajput, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.
Reserves: Swapnil Kusale, Chain Singh.
10m air pistol: Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma.
Reserves: Shahzar Rizvi, Om Prakash Mitharval.
Skeet: Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, Mairaj Ahmad Khan.
Reserves: Gurjoat Singh Khangura, Sheeraz Sheikh.
Women: 10m air rifle: Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan.
Reserves: Anjum Moudgil, Shreya Agrawal.
50m rifle 3-position: Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant.
Reserves: Sunidhi Chauhan, Gaayathri NIthyanandam.
10m air pistol: Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Singh Deswal.
Reserves: P Shri Nivetha, Shweta Singh.
25m sports pistol: Rahi Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker.
Reserves: Chinki Yadav, Abhidnya Patil.
10m air rifle mixed team: Divyan Singh Panwar, Elavenil Valarivan; Deepak Kumar, Anjum Moudgil.
10m air pistol mixed team: Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker; Abhishek Verma, Yashaswini Singh Deswal .