All about the super interesting sport - SHOOTING

 

                                                          Image from www.abcteach.comPractice is a talent.

Perseverance is a talent. Hard work is a talent.

- Abhinav Bindra, Gold medal winner in the Olympics for India.

Shooting as a sport looks simple. But, it isn't.
While physical fitness is important, it is a tense and testing sport that requires immense skill and nerve.
Success depends on staying cool under the enormous pressure of Olympic competition.

1.     Governing bodies:

• In India, The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) governs the sport and is affiliated to Indian Olympic Association.
• International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) governs the sport at the International level.

2.     Olympic games

• Shooting is one of the major disciplines in Olympic Games. 
• The total number of shooters from all over the World has been restricted to 390. 
• At present there are 15 Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in the Olympic Games for men and women. 

3.     Different types of guns used in Olympic shooting?

Shooting at the Olympic Games features these types of guns — Rifle, pistol and shotgun.

• In Rifle & Pistol, they shoot at stationery targets with concentric circles with those closer to the centre earning more points.

• In Shotgun, they shoot at moving/flying clay targets.

There are two varieties in shotgun:

• Trap, where the targets are thrown a long distance from a single trap; and
• Skeet, where targets are thrown from traps on the left and right.

Below are the 15 events at the Olympics in 2021 in Tokyo:

At Tokyo 2020, 10m air rifle, 10m air pistol and clay trap will be included as men's, women's and mixed events for the first time.

In Rifle, there are 3 shooting positions:

• Kneeling, where the athlete goes down on one knee and rests the gun on the other knee;
• Prone, where the athlete shoots while lying down; and
• Standing

4.     India at the Olympics:

Of India’s 17 individual Olympic medals, four have been won in shooting.

• The first of those came in Athens 2004, when Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won silver in the Men’s Double Trap event
• Beijing 2008 was a landmark moment for India in the Olympics as Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal, doing so in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event.
• In London 2012, two shooters won medals — Gagan Narang clinched bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event while Vijay Kumar captured silver in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event

India’s streak of three straight Olympic Games with a medal in shooting ended in Rio 2016.

Qualified for 2020 Olympics :

India will have a record participation of at least 15 shooters : 3 more than RIO.

We have won medals at the ISSF World Cups, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games recently.

10 M Air Rifle (Women’s)

1.     Anjum Moudgil

• First Indian athlete to make the cut for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
• Maiden appearance at the Olympic Games.

2.     Apurvi Chandela

• The current top-ranked shooter in the women’s air rifle category
• The first time that two of India’s shooters in the same category qualified for the Olympics at one competition. 
• The 26-year-old participated in the 2016 Rio Games, where she finished in 34th place.

10 M Air Pistol (Men’s)

3.     Saurabh Chaudhary

• 17 yr-old
•  The youngster has already won five gold medals at World Cups and also nabbed a silver at the recently concluded Asian Championship in Qatar.
• Debut

4.     Abhishek Verma

• Verma won gold in the mixed team event at the Asian Championship alongside Manu Bhaker and remains one of the nation’s main prospects heading into Tokyo 2020.
•  A lot of hope from him

10 M Air Rifle (Men’s)

5.     Divyansh Singh Panwar

• 17 yr old has taken the shooting fraternity by storm, winning a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing earlier this year.
• The teenager has also won two ISSF World Cup gold medals in the Air Rifle mixed team with Moudgil.
• Current world no 1

6.     Deepak Kumar

•  Veteran shooter who will be making his Olympic debut

50 M Rifle 3 Position (Men’s)

7.     Sanjeev Rajput

•  Veteran participating in his 3rd Olympics
• Participated in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games, but could not make it past the qualification round. 

8.     Aishwarya Singh Tomar

•  18 yr old prodigy on whom a lot of expectations lie

Skeet (Men’s)

9.     Angad Bajwa

• Won gold in Asian championship
• Olympic debut 

10. Mairaj Ahmad Khan

• Veteran – 44yr

25 m Pistol (Women’s)

11. Rahi Sarnobat

• Veteran shooter
•  Missed 2016 Olympics due to injury
• With an Asian Games gold medal under her belt now, will be optimistic of bettering that record at Tokyo.

12. Chinki Yadav

India will have maximum participation at the Tokyo 2020 for the women's 25m Air Pistol discipline, and will be optimistic on improving their showing from four years prior where the nation’s solitary participant Heena Sidhu finished in 20th position after qualification.

10 M Air Pistol (Women’s)

13. Manu Bhaker

• 17 yr old prodigy and the nation expects a lot from her
• The youngster has been in splendid form, winning a gold at the recently concluded Asian Championship

14. Yashaswini Deswal

• 22 yr old
• 2nd woman to qualify after Manu Bhaker
•  Individual & mixed team

50 M Rifle 3 Position (Women’s)

15. Tejaswini Sawant 

• Olympics debut

Mixed : Manu Bhaker & Saurabh Chaudhary

• Teenage sensations Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary have each won six gold medals at the ISSF World Cup. Both will be making their Olympic Games debut at Tokyo 2020, and a lot will be expected of the duo who have already won four golds together in 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team at the ISSF World Cup events.
• Apurvi Chandela, a 10m Air Rifle shooter, has also been highly successful in the past two years and has four medals - including three golds - at the ISSF World Cup events in 2019.

5.     Olympic Qualification rules:

The tension prior to firing, the exhilaration of a successful shot and the dramatic changes in ranking caused by even the slightest inaccuracy all make for a compelling experience.

50m rifle 3 Positions events

a.     40 shots are taken from each of the kneeling, prone and standing positions.

b.     Time limit of 2 hours 45 minutes for the main competition which decides the 8 finalists, who then compete for medals over one hour.

c.      It is a supremely rigorous challenge and competitors are said to lose up to two kilograms in weight by the end.

25m rapid fire pistol

a.     an event involving successive rapid fire in the standing position over short periods of eight, six and four seconds.

b.     No automatic function is used, and all shots require the trigger to be pulled manually.

25m pistol

a.      an event for women only in which the target is aimed at with one hand from the standing position.

b.     The event comprises 60 shots, split evenly between rounds of precision shooting and rapid shooting.

Shotgun shooting requires instant judgment and sharp reflexes.

a.     Trap (single trap) is about hitting randomly released clays while moving between five shooting stations arranged in a line.

 i.     Participants take two shots at each target.

 ii.     six best shooters move on to the medal round.

 iii.     In mixed team, 6 teams move ahead

b.     Skeet (traps from left & right) sees competitors aiming at clays in a range of directions using a total of eight shooting stages.

  i.     A total of 25 targets are released and, unlike trap, there's one shot per target.

  ii.     The shape of the range and wind direction are among the factors for athletes to consider.

   iii.     six best shooters move on to the medal round.

10 M Men & Women:

a.     athletes fire 60 shots at the target within a timeframe of one hour and 15 minutes, following which, the top eight athletes from the qualification phase advance to the final match, where they can shoot up to 24 final shots

10 M Mixed team:

b.     Each team member fires 40 shots at the target within 50 minutes in the qualification round, after which five teams qualify for the final round.

6.     World:

• Shooting is a global sport with athletes from around 100 countries typically participating at the Games.
• The biggest medal winner overall is the USA with China and Republic of Korea performing strongly. 
• 2012 London Olympics: Republic of Korea gained three gold and two silver medals while the USA also topped the podium on three occasions.

Like Boxing & Wrestling, India has a lot of hopes pinned on shooting as well.

I am expecting at least 2 medals, what about you?