The World Cup is a season of enthusiasm, excitement, and hope. Though world cup is not limited to the world of cricket but there are various versions to it. Currently, the 2019 ISSF World Cup is going on and is the annual edition of the ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. It started on 20th February 2019 and will last till 15th October 2019. The event has brought Indians many reasons to celebrate as recently Abhishek Verma won the gold medal and Saurabh Chaudhary a bronze, in a dominant display by Indian shooters in the men’s 10m air pistol event of the World Cup.
The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Federation in 1986 to provide a homogeneous system for qualification to the Olympic Shooting competitions. It is carried out in the Olympic shooting events, with four competitions per year in each event.
Whereas the first gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro World Cup was won by Elavenul Valarivan from India in 10m Air Rifle Women’s Final and from that point, there is no stoppage for India’s victory. Now, Abhishek Verma who is an Indian sport shooter has won two Gold medals in Men’s Air Pistol. He has been an amazing inspiration and has other medals and victory in his bag as he also won a bronze medal in Men’s 10m air pistol in 2018 Jakarta Palembang.
Abhishek Verma was born on 1st August 1989 in Karnal, India. He joined Eklavya sports shooting academy and was coached by Omendra Singh. Apart from this recent victory, he also won a silver medal in 2018 Changwon. He shot 244.2 in the right-man finals in 2019 world cup and has helped India to sweep this year’s Men’s 10m Air Pistol.
Also, Saurabh Chaudhary won a bronze medal. He is an Indian sport shooter and was born in Meerut of UP, India. He hails from a family of farmers who lived in Yamuna and Gangatic plains of western Uttar Pradesh. He took up this game at an early age of 13 and practiced it on a daily basis, for which he also travelled 15 km in buses daily. He got his training from Veer Sahamal Rifle Club and was coached by Amit Sheoran. He also won the Gold medal at 2018 Asian Games in 10m Air Pistol and became the youngest Indian gold medalist at the Asian Games. Apart from these victories, earlier he also won many Gold medals and also set a new junior world record in the ISSF Junior World Cup, in Suhl, Germany. He is the only Indian shooter to win a Gold medal in ISSF World Championship, ISSF World Cup, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games, and Asian Air Gun Championship. None had the courage to break his record but he broke his own World Record with a score of 245.5 and claimed Gold in Junior Men 10m Air Pistol at 2018 World Championship in Changwon, Korea. Apart from this, he has already won three successive Gold medals in World Cups in 2019.
Both the heroes, Abhishek Verma, and Saurabh Chaudhary have made India proud. Abhishek Verma who is also a part-time lawyer bagged a Gold medal and 17-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary Bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event. Verma shot 244.2 in eight-man finals whereas Chaudhary managed to score 221.9 which got him a bronze medal. The silver medal went to Turkey’s Ismail Keles with a score of 243.1
Chaudhary was fourth with 584 points and Verma entered the finals in the fifth position with 582 points, in the qualifications. While Gaurav Rana was at 44th position with 571 points. India was placed at the top of the medals tally with two gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal.
The account was opened by Elavenil Valarivan with gold and later Sanjeev Rajput claimed silver. But Chaudhary and Verma ended the second day of competitions on a high note for India.
And now after Chaudhary and Verma have performed so well in the ISSF World Cup, India is looking forward and expecting a lot from them for Tokyo Olympics 2020, which is an upcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled from 24th July to 9 August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. Shooting competitions at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo are scheduled to take place from 25th July 2020 to 2nd August 2020 at the Asaka Shooting Range. So, Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary are India’s biggest Gold medal hope in 2020 Olympics. We wish them all the luck!
