New Delhi World Cup: Race for 25m rapid pistol heats up

By Navneet Singh New Delhi, Feb 12 : India hasn’t secured an Olympic Games quota in men’s 25m rapid pistol, but the shooting world governing body could allot individual quota to the shooter who accumulates good ranking points by May 31, the deadline for allotting individual quotas.
World’s 12th ranked Anish Bhanwala, the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games champion in this event, seems to have the brightest chance from India to secure the individual quota.
However, the 18-year-old talented shooter, a multiple medal-winner in the junior World Cups in 2018 and 2019 season, is not in form these days. In the fourth national selection trials – as well as the previous trials – for March’s Delhi World Cup, Bhanwala has not been impressive.
In the second round of the trials, being held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges here on Friday, failed to reach the final of the 25m rapid pistol event.
Delhi’s Arpit Goel was the winner with 30 points, Adarsh Singh was second with 29, and Vijayveer Sidhu was third with 25 points. Friday’s result would brighten the chances of the top three shooters to compete in the New Delhi World Cup, starting on March 18.
Bhanwala had also failed to finish among the top eight in the third round of the trials on Thursday, an indication that he wasn’t in good form.