The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Sport 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. For the best shooters there is a World Cup since 1988.
2019 ISSF World Cup is the annual edition of ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, which is governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. The World Cup series will be seen as qualification tournaments for the 2020 Olympic Games. India has emerged as the most successful nation. Indian shooters have finished their campaign at the ISSF World Cup with a huge number of medals, whooping 22 medals out of which 16 are gold medals! While their best medals tally was eight which was achieved last year. Earlier, India had a total of 19 medals in the history of the event and this year they have broken the record by collecting 22 medals in a single year, this highlights the success. Here is the breakdown of the medals:
The competitions were in favor of India and even at the end that is on Monday, 2nd September 2019, which was the final day of the competition, India won 2 gold medals. Ace shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary defeated their India opponents Yashaswani Deswal and Abhishek Verma to bag the gold medal in 10m air pistol mixed team event. Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary have won all the mixed air pistol gold medals at ISSF World Cups in 2019. Yashaswani Deswal and Abhishek Verma won silver medals in the same event.
Apurvi Chandela, world number one in women’s 10m air rifle had partnered with Deepak Kumar to win India their another medal on the concluding day and thus the pair won the top medal in the mixed air rifle. The Indian duo defeated China’s Yang Qian and Yu Haonan 16-6 in the final. The bronze medal was won by another Indian team which was represented by Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar. Apurvi Chandela won 2 individual gold medals and 1 gold, 1 silver mixed team medals in Women’s 10m air rifle and Mixed team 10m air rifle.
While Saurabh Chaudhary is considered to be the most successful Indian shooter at the ISSF World Cup this year by collecting a total of 7 medals in which his individual medals include 2 gold and 1 bronze, while mixed team medals are 4 gold in Men’s 10m air pistol and Mixed team 10m air pistol respectively.
Abhishek Verma won 2 individual gold medals and 1 silver mixed team medal in Men’s 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol. Manu Bhaker won mixed team 4 gold medals in mixed team 10m air pistol. Yashaswani Deshwal won 1 individual gold medal and 1 silver mixed team medal in women’s 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol. Divyansh Panwar won 1 silver individual medal and 2 gold, 1 bronze mixed team medals in men’s 10m air rifle and mixed team 10m air rifle. Anjum Moudgil won 2 gold mixed team medals. Deepak Kumar won 1 gold and 1 silver mixed team medals. Rahi Sarnobat won an individual gold medal in women’s 25m pistol. Elavenil Valarivan won 1 individual gold medal in women’s 10m air rifle. Sanjeev Rajput won 1 individual silver medal in men’s 50m rifle three positions.
Though, India dominated the ISSF World Cup, the performance was better in pistol rather than rifle events. Out of 22 medals, 12 came in pistol events and the other 10 in rifle events.
India have for sure secured nine Olympic quotas for 2020 Tokyo Game which include Yashaswini, Deswal Anjum Moudgil, Apuvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker and Sanjeev Rajput. We wish them all the luck and may they continue to shine brighter and create records with more medals and victories!
