Divyansh Panwar and Anjum Moudgil. (File)Divyansh Singh Panwar and Anjum Moudgill won their second successive ISSF World Cup gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle mixed event in Munich with a 16:2 win over compatriots Apurvi Chandela and Deepak Kumar.
“Divyansh has been training for team events too in practice sessions. The target has been to reduce the shooting time to 16-20 seconds so that he can adjust well if there is time shortage due to the team-mate. He faced some problem initially but we worked on things like breathing pattern with the help of pranayam and the timing of shot release,” Deepak Kumar Dubey, Panwar’s coach said.
“It’s more competitive and intense. Sometimes, the shooter can be under pressure also due to a low score or a better score by the opponents. Any team can make a comeback even when they are trailing by 6-10 points in the race-to-16 points format. This is not the case in an individual final event, where if a shooter builds a lead of more than 2-3 points in the overall score, it is enough.”
Unlike at the Beijing World Cup where the top eight teams competed in the quarterfinals, semifinals and final with medal matches, Munich’s 10m Air Rifle Mixed team event saw a different format where two-member teams shot six series in qualification relay to decide the top eight teams followed by those shortlisted pairs shooting six series to decide the top two teams for the final, with the third and fourth teams shooting for the bronze medal.
Moudgill and Panwar shot a combined score of 629.1 to finish fourth in qualification while the pair of Chandela and Kumar shot a combined score of 629.0 to finish fourth. The second part of qualification would see Moudgill/Panwar shooting 631.9 to claim top spot while Chandela and Kumar shot a combined score of 630.2 to join them in the final. Chandela/Kumar would win the first series in the final and collect two points with a combined score of 20.9 compared to 19.9 by Moudill/Panwar.
But the latter would win the next eight series in succession and collect 16 points to win the gold medal. Even though Apurvi’s combined score in the final read 91.3 against Moudgill’s 93.2 and Panwar’s score was 93.5 compared to Kumar’s 93.2, it was the duo’s combined scores in each series that were taken into consideration.
“The pattern of scoring is different and sometimes, it can pose a challenge, even to a top- ranked shooter like Apurvi. The main challenge has been competing in the qualification relay and qualification part 2. Adjusting to the timing where both shooters have to fire 60 shots in 50 minutes as compared to the earlier format of 60 shots in 75 minutes is crucial in this event,” says Indian shooting coach Deepali Deshpande.
Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary won their third World Cup gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event with a 17:9 win over Olena Kostevych and Oleh Omelchuk of Ukraine. The Indian pair had topped the qualification with a score of 586 before topping the eight-team field in qualification part 2 with a score of 591.
India finished on top of the medal tally with five gold and a silver medal.
