India's Apurvi tops ranking in 10m air rifle

Apurvi Chandela

Indian shooting ace Apurvi Chandela Wednesday attained the world number position in the women's 10m air rifle event while compatriot Anjum Moudgil rose to number two after consistent performances in recent years.

The rifle ace from Jaipur is among the five Indian shooters to have already secured 2020 Olympics quotas for the country. Chandela shot a world record score of 252.9 to clinch gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in February. She is a gold medallist at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Game and a bronze winner in the next edition at Gold Coast. In the 2018 Asian Games, Chandela had won a bronze medal in the 10m mixed rifle event. The shooter took to twitter to share her joy on achieving the feat. "World Number 1 Touched a milestone in my shooting career today," Chandela wrote on her twitter handle.

While the 26-year-old Chandela has already booked a Tokyo Olympics berth, she narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth with a total score of 207.8, at the recently-concluded ISSF World Cup in Beijing. Meanwhile, Moudgil attained the world number two rank in 10m Air Rifle after her mixed team gold at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing. Manu Bhaker is the world number 10 in 25m pistol women category. Among men, Divyansh Singh Panwar's World Cup exploits in Beijing helped him reach world number four spot in 10m air rifle category.

Divyansh won two gold medals at Beijing -- 10m air rifle and 10m air rifle mixed team - and also secured his quota at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Abhishek Verma, who also won a gold in Beijing, has reached world number three in 10m Air Pistol category. India's teen sensation Saurabh Chaudhary was not far away at world number 6. Anish Bhanwala, another of India's talented young shooter, secured the 10th spot in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol category.

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