After a hectic year with the Olympics, many Olympic qualification tournaments (+ trials to select a team for the Olympics) and 3 ISSF world cups across the shooting world (Cairo, Rabat, Baku, Lonato and Munich), we have finally arrived at the final ISSF tournament of 2024- the ISSF shooting world cup finals.
New Delhi is hosting the event from October 13th. Today was the actual first day of competition- the airgun events are already over. It’s a tightly packed event with just 3 competition days. It is an opportunity for India shooting sport lovers to catch a glimpse but there are rumblings on X that some were denied entry into the range. Hope these issues are resolved tomorrow.
The year-end ISSF finals is different from the usual world cups, which have more than hundred entries in each discipline. Here the entries are limited to 10-12 per event.
They are distributed as follows
There will be no mixed team events.
I do not understand why 10 shooters compete for 8 spots in the finals. It is a farce and I do not know why this is still going on.
India will have 2 shooters in the starting list of each event (Table).
As already mentioned, qualification to the finals is no big deal, but medalling in a small yet extremely competitive field is going to be challenging.
None of India’s 3 medallists at Paris- Manu, Sarabjot or Swapnil- will be there. Only two Indians have qualified via the WC rankings- Divyansh and Rhythm (air pistol).
If this was not held in India, those would have been the only 2 Indians.
10m air rifle- Men | Arjun Babuta Divyansh Panwar |
10m air pistol- Men | Varun Tomar Arjun Singh Cheema |
10m air rifle- Women | Sonam Uttam Maskar Tilottama Sen |
10m air pistol- Women | Rhythm Sangwan Surbhi Rao |
25m RFP men | Anish Bhanwala Vijayveer Sidhu |
25m pistol women | Rhythm Sangwan Simranpreet Kaur Brar |
50m 3P men | Akhil Sheoran Chain Singh |
50m 3P women | Ashi Chouksey Nischal |
Skeet men | Mairaj Ahmed Khan Anantjeet Naruka |
Skeet women | Ganemat Sekhon Maheshwari Chauhan |
Trap men | Bhowneesh Mendiratta Vivaan Kapoor |
Trap women | Shreyasi Singh Rajeshwari Kumari |
It is going to be an uphill task to medal even in this tiny field. And as day 1 has unravelled, only Sonam Uttam Maskar has medalled (silver).
You are left wondering the context of this event. There is some prize money to be won (5000/4000/3000 euros for the top 3).
The best Chinese are there, as are some of the best Europeans. From an Indian perspective, it is not a pleasant situation. If they don’t do well, they are going to be criticised for getting a free pass.
Hope they take it as just another event and give it their best.
Arjun Cheema and Divyansh Panwar did not do their reputation any good today with underwhelming performances.
Here is Medal Tally at the end of Day 1
Anish, Vijayveer and Rhythm would be looking to recover some lost pride in the 25m pistol events. The 3-position team is not our best- Akhil Sheoran and Chain Singh (did well in the latest national trials) will be out to prove their doubters wrong.
I do not have any hopes from the shotgun events and any positive result will be a surprise.
The first ISSF world cup of 2025 is another 6 months away at Buenos Aires.
2025 will also have world championships in October (Shotgun, Malakasa) and November (Rifle/ Pistol, Cairo).
It has been a bittersweet 2024 for Indian shooting- 3 medals is not a bad haul- but still the heart yearns for more- a shinier medal or two perhaps.
Let’s pray for a better 2025.
Written By Sundaram
