Bhaker to represent India in three events in Olympics, Elavenil included as Chinki misses out

New Delhi: World number one Elavenil Valarivan was on Sunday included in a 15-member Indian shooting contingent for the Tokyo Olympics where the highly accomplished Manu Bhaker will represent the country in three events. However, Olympic quota winner Chinki Yadav could not make the main team despite winning a gold medal in the Delhi World Cup last month.

It was decided by the national selection committee that the quota won by Chinki in the women's 25m pistol would be swapped in favour of Anjum Moudgil, to enable her to compete in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event as India's second entry alongside former world champion Tejaswini Sawant.

Reigning world number one in women's 10m air rifle, Elavenil, is the only member in the Olympic team to have not secured a quota for herself but performed consistently in the Olympic qualifying cycle, forcing the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to include her in the women's 10m air rifle team in place of Moudgil.

To deal with the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the NRAI named two reserves in each discipline where its shooters have won quota places. In the individual events, Bhaker will be fielded in both the women's 25m pistol alongside the experienced Rahi Sarnobat and in her pet 10m air pistol event with Yashaswini Singh Deswal.

Besides, the 19-year-old Bhaker will partner with Saurabh Chaudhary in the 10m air pistol mixed event. The shooters were selected based on their performance in the NRAI's Olympic qualifying cycle, starting with the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games which was followed by World Championship (both in 2018), all four World Cups and Asian Championships in 2019 and selection trials stage 1 and 2 earlier this year.

As per the NRAI's stated policy, an average of five best scores in an international competition, starting with the Jakarta Asiad, was taken into account while picking the final team. Commenting on the team, NRAI president Raninder Singh said, "The main focus was to select the strongest squad for the Games and to ensure that the most consistent performers in each event, during the course of this entire Olympic cycle, do not miss out."

He added, "The selection I believe has been done purely on merit and in keeping with the provisions of NRAI's Olympic selection ranking policy. " The quota belongs to the country and not the shooter who secures it.

Team: 10m Air Rifle Men: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Deepak Kumar Reserve Shooters: Sandeep Singh, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

50m Rifle 3 Position Men: Sanjeev Rajput, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar Reserve Shooters: Swapnil Kusale, Chain Singh

10m Air Pistol Men: Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma Reserve Shooters: Shahzar Rizvi, Om Prakash Mitharval

10m Air Rifle Women: Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan Reserve Shooters: Anjum Moudgil, Shreya Agrawal

50m Rifle 3 Position Women: Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant Reserve Shooters: Sunidhi Chauhan, Gaayathri N

10m Air Pistol Women: Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Singh Deswal Reserve Shooters: P. Shri Nivetha, Shweta Singh

25m Sports Pistol Women: Rahi Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker Reserve Shooters: Chinki Yadav, Abhidnya Patil

Skeet Men: Angadvir Singh Bajwa, Mairaj Ahmad Khan Reserve Shooters: Gurjoat Siingh Khangura, Sheeraz Sheikh

10m Air Rifle Mixed Team: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Elavenil Valarivan Deepak Kumar, Anjum Moudgil

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team: Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker Abhishek Verma, Yashaswini Singh Deswal. (PTI)