PUNE: A windfall of medals is in the offing for the Indian contingent when the shooting World Cup begins at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in the Capital from Thursday.
India have fielded a strong 57-shooter contingent, which includes 15 Tokyo quota winners, which will see a range of new events being introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).
In all, the Delhi World Cup will see 9 team events being added in the rifle-pistol category of the World Cup cycle. The events will be tested for the first time. The ISSF had tried skeet and trap team events at the recently concluded shotgun World Cup in Cairo.
Apart from adding team events in 10m (air rifle and air pistol) men’s and women’s events, ISSF will also test mixed team events in the 50m rifle 3position event other than having men’s and women’s team events respectively. Likewise, the men’s 25m rapid fire event will also see a mixed team event, and men’s team.
Since women don’t shoot 25m rapid fire and shoot 25m sports pistol, the mixed event has the potential of becoming a hit on television.
Unlike earlier, when the team medals were given on the basis of aggregate of individual scores shot by the members of a team, the new team events will have their own qualifications and medal rounds. “All the events will be tested here as per the format. We will study them and will make changes if required for later World Cups,” Yair Davidovich, member of ISSF’s executive committee, said.
When asked if the events will also be pushed for the Olympics in the future, he said, “We are not sure as we may not get so many quota places for the Olympics. But they will play in the World Championships for sure.”
There are four World Cups in a year, while the World Championships is a quadrennial event.