ISSF World Cup: Anjum Moudgil proves a point with qualification in air rifle final
On Friday, however, Moudgil was the saving grace; she was the only Indian shooter in women’s air rifle to qualify for the final scheduled on Saturday.
The ISSF World Cup here is the first international tournament for Indian shooters in more than a year, but Anjum Moudgil was still under pressure to perform. That’s the way it has been for her since she won the 10m women's air rifle quota for India with a silver medal at the World Championships in 2018 – it remains India’s biggest shooting medal in the last three years. Moudgil is seen as a specialist in rifle 3 position and her quota – that belongs to the country – is always under scrutiny. India has a crack field in 10m women’s air rifle and the rise of Elavenil Valarivan, currently the world No 1, has further added to speculations on Moudgil’s Tokyo berth.
On Friday, however, Moudgil was the saving grace; she was the only Indian shooter in women’s air rifle to qualify for the final scheduled on Saturday. Shooting consistently throughout the six series of 10 shots each, Moudgil totalled 629.6 to finish in second place. Hungary’s Denes Eszter took first place with a score of 629.8. Both Valarivan and Chandela failed to make the cut for the eight-woman final. Elavenil was 12th with a score of 626.7 and Chandela finished 26th (622.8).
“It was not only that I was shooting well, but I was shooting well in an international competition after a long time. I was feeling good,” was Moudgil’s terse response.
She made changes to her equipment just before the lockdown and was struggling to find her rhythm during training and domestic trials recently. She has now gone back to her old equipment and reaped results on Friday. Nothing distracted Moudgil on this day, not even monkeys coming on the ceiling of the 10m range. Since the range opened after lockdown, range officials say the presence of monkeys has increased.
“Anjum changed her kit and it did not suit her, so we decided to go back to the original kit after the first trials in January and since then she has been doing well. She has maintained her performance throughout 2019, though nothing spectacular but she was there among the top shooters in 10m air rifle. She is a seasoned shooter and she has this ability to work under pressure,” said air rifle coach Deepali Deshpande.
Valarivan, who was brilliant during the four trials in Jan-Feb and even shot a world record score once, just could not find her rhythm. In between the match, she checked her stance and started with renewed focus but still could not hit the higher 10s consistently. Chandela, who won two World Cup gold medals in 2019, was also off colour.
Divyansh, Babuta qualify
The men’s 10m air rifle qualification saw high scores and world No 1 Divyansh Panwar made the cut in sixth place (629.1), while Babuta, who has two junior world cup medals, was the top Indian during the qualification with a score of 631.8 that saw the Punjab shooter finish in third place. Korean Nam Taeyun qualified in top spot (632.1) and Israel’s Sergey Richter came second (631.8). Deepak Kumar, who is the second Indian to win a quota place besides Divyansh, finished in 12th place with a score of 626.4