Key Points

Held at the iconic Olympic Shooting range between June 8-15, the Munich World Cup saw India register their third top-three finish this year in four world cups, with two gold and two bronze medals. The country not only improved its standing from joint third last year to sole third this year but also doubled its medal count, including the gold count, from last year’s Munich World Cup.

“The Munich World Cup which is an annual feature of the International Shooting calendar and is held at the revered Olympic Shooting range, which hosted the sport at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has once again brought out the best in our rifle and pistol shooters,” said an overjoyed K. Sultan Singh, Secretary General, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

“When many were saying and quite rightly so, that India will find it very tough given the large field, quality of competition, and the fact that some of our best were not part of the squad, our athletes have proven that the depth in Indian shooting is more formidable than ever before. On behalf of the NRAI, I congratulate the entire squad, including the coaches and support staff, for the amazing results, not only in Munich but throughout the year,” he was quoted as saying by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) in a release on Monday.

The high point for India at Munich this year, as also of this whole international season, has been the stunning consistency of rising women’s pistol star Suruchi Phogat.

The Haryana teenager won an unprecedented third consecutive individual ISSF World Cup stage gold in the women’s 10m air pistol (APW) and did well at Buenos Aires on her World Cup debut, which is mindboggling. She went where no Indian, man or woman, has ever gone before.

The other standout performer was the combo of Arya Rajesh Borse and Olympian Arjun Babuta, who scored a tremendous win over the Chinese world record holders Sheng Lihao and Wang Zifei, the former also the Olympic champion in the event, in the 10m air rifle mixed team final, where they completely outgunned the crack Chinese pair 17-7.

With some incredible and consistent series of high scores, they showcased the depth and newfound confidence of Indian shooting like never before.

Elavenil Valarivan (women’s 10m air rifle-arw), a two-time Olympian, and Sift Kaur Samra (50m rifle 3 positions women-3P), Olympian and world record holder, also reinforced their status as one of the world’s top shooters, with their bronze-winning performances in Munich.

Ela also set a new national record in the qualification series of 635.9 enroute to her bronze, while Suruchi equalled Manu Bhaker’s qualifications national mark of 588 in the women's air pistol.

In keeping with the trend this year, Indian World Cup debutants, and there were as many as three in Munich, also delivered encouraging performances in world-class fields that they were up against first up.

Ananya Naidu (arw) shot a solid 632.4 to finish 13th among contenders. Nishant Rawat (10m air pistol men-apm) and Aditya Malra (apm) too shot scores of 582 and 578 to finish 10th and 27th respectively.

India made a total of seven finals in the 10 events in Munich with Manu Bhaker (women’s 25m pistol), Varun Tomar (men’s 10m air pistol), and Chain Singh (men’s 3P), finishing sixth (both Manu and Varun) and seventh respectively, underlying India’s strength in the sport.

China finished on top of the standings with seven medals, including four gold, while Norway edged India to second based on having won a silver medal with the same number of gold and total medals as India.

A total of 11 nations, including the individual neutral athletes group, won medals in Munich. The ISSF bandwagon moves to Lonato Del Garda in Italy next month for the year’s fourth Shotgun World Cup stage, while the fourth and final Rifle/Pistol World Cup is scheduled for Ningbo in China in September.

- IANS