The ISSF World Cup in New Delhi was overshadowed at its start by the refusal of the Indian government to issue a visa for two Pakistani shooters in the men’s 25 m Rapid-Fire Pistol, but once the events started, the records started falling.
In fact, of the first four events held, three resulted in new world marks:
● Men’s 10 m Air Pistol: A popular victory for India, from 16-year-old Chaudhary Saurabh, who won the 2018 Youth Olympic Games competition in Argentina last October. Saurabh compiled a score of 245.0, eclipsing the 243.6 score from Ukraine’s Oleh Omelchuk from 2018.
● Women’s 25 m Pistol: Hungary’s Veronika Major, 21, hit 40 targets out of 50 to break Greece’s Anna Korakaki’s mark of 39 in winning the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
● Women’s 10 m Air Rifle: Another Indian victory, this time by Apurvi Chandela, whose 252.9 total broke the 252.4 total by China’s Ruozhu Zhao from 2018. Zhao finished second.
The top two finishers in each event are rewarded with a quota spot for the 2020 Tokyo Games, except for the men’s 25 m Rapid-Fire Pistol, which is not eligible for Olympic qualification due to the visa crisis.
The competition continues through Wednesday. Summaries:
ISSF World Cup
New Delhi (IND) ~ 20-28 February 2019
(Full results here)
Men
10 m Air Pistol: 1. Chaudhary Saurabh (IND), 245.0 (World Record; old, 243.6, Oleh Omelchuk (UKR), 2018); 2. Damir Mikec (SRB), 239.3; 3. Wei Pang (CHN), 215.2.
50 m Rifle/3 Positions: 1. Istvan Peni (HUN), 459.1; 2. Sergey Kaminskiy (RUS), 459.0; 3. Marco Di Nicolo (ITA), 444.5.
Women
25 m Pistol: 1. Veronika Major (HUN), 40 (World Record; old, 39, Anna Korikaki (GRE), 2016); 2. Jingjing Zhang (CHN), 33; 3. Haniyeh Rostamiyan (IRI), 30.
10 m Air Rifle: 1. Apurvi Chandela (IND), 252.9 (World Record; old, 252.4, Ruozhu Zhao (CHN), 2018); 2. Ruozhu Zhao (CHN), 251.8; 3. Hong Xu (CHN), 230.4.
