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Young rifle shooter Elavenil handed Tokyo berth, pistol shooter Chinki dropped
Elavenil, 21, who did not have an Olympic quota, will get the quota won by Anjum Moudgil—a world championships silver medallist in the event.
Women’s 10m air rifle world No.1, Elavenil Valarivan, has been selected in India’s shooting team for the Tokyo Olympics. She was named with Apurvi Chandela for the event, highly competitive in India, as the national selection committee announced a 15-member team on Sunday.
Elavenil, 21, who did not have an Olympic quota, will get the quota won by Anjum Moudgil—a world championships silver medallist in the event. Moudgil will get to compete in the 50m rifle three-position and in the 10m air rifle mixed team event (with Deepak Kumar), by exchanging the quota of pistol shooter Chinki Yadav, the only one among India’s record 15 quota winners to not find a place in the team.
The quota, or qualification berths, though earned by individual shooters are for the country. The national federation/selection panel can allot it to a different shooter if it is felt she or he is a better medal prospect.
Elavenil and Divyansh Panwar are the other 10m air rifle mixed event team. Apurvi, who has been going through a dip in form, will shoot only in individual competition.
It will be a huge disappointment for Chinki Yadav, the 23-year-old from Bhopal who showed excellent form in the recent World Cup in Delhi, winning gold in the 25m sports pistol event ahead of the seasoned Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker. Chinki rose to world No. 1 in 25m pistol after her gold medal show.
Young Bhaker is the only shooter who gets to compete in three events—10m air pistol, 25m sports pistol and mixed team (with Saurabh Chaudhary). The squad was announced by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh after a marathon five-hour selection meeting. Two reserves have been named in each of the 10 disciplines and will stay and train in the bio-bubble with the selected shooters.
“The 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 course of this entire Olympic cycle, do not miss out. We are confident that this selection will deliver,” Raninder Singh said.
“The selection has been done purely on merit and in keeping with the provisions of NRAI’s Olympic selection ranking policy. This approach has enabled us to field a third specialist shooter in the women’s 10m air rifle events as well as go with the two best shooters in women’s 25m pistol event.”
The discussion on Chinki Yadav was intense as she has shown good form recently.
“Manu has been ahead of Chinki in the Olympic selection policy, so the consistency was taken into account. The performance in the World Cup was a small part of the selection process. We had to look at the whole cycle,” said a coach, who did not wish to be named.
Moudgil was the first Indian shooter besides Apurvi to win a quota in 10m air rifle with a silver medal at the world championships, but she will not get to shoot in that event. She was also in good form in the Delhi World Cup and was the only one among the three Indians to qualify for the final, finishing fifth.
“Yes, I wanted to be in air (rifle) too but I will give my 100 per cent in everything at the Tokyo Olympics,” said Moudgil.
As for Chinki, she will miss out like rifle shooter Sanjeev Rajput did in Rio 2016 Olympics, after his quota was replaced to pick trap shooter Manavjit Sandhu. Rajput won a quota place this time too and is in the squad.
