The Indian shooters will have the chance to gift the nation its first 2024 Olympics medal on Saturday.
The 10m air rifle mixed team event will be held on the day. The event will commence with the qualification round and will be followed by the final to decide the medal winners.
Two Indian teams will be in the competition — the Sandeep Singh-Elavenil Valarivan pair and the duo of Arjun Babuta and Ramita Jindal.
Memories of a super flop show from the shooters at the Tokyo Olympics might haunt Elavenil, who suffered a disastrous campaign at the last edition of the Games. Teaming up with Divyansh Singh Panwar, Elavenil had finished 12th in 10m air rifle mixed team contest in Tokyo. The other Indian pair — Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil — had done even worse, finishing 18th.
Saturday will be Elavenil’s shot at redemption. The world No. 20 has a new partner in Sandeep (world No. 16).
Sandeep has come to Paris on the back of a very strong performance at the Olympic Selection Trials in Delhi and Bhopal in March. If Elavenil, a gold medallist in the mixed team event at the 2021 ISSF World Cup, can fire her shots well, India can surely hope for a podium finish.
The other Indian team in the fray, Ramita (world No.19) and Arjun (world No.14), are no pushovers either. Arjun, the lone quota winner among the four, had won gold at the 2022 Changwon World Cup. He, however, finished second behind Sandeep at the selection trials. Ramita, on the other hand, topped the 10m air rifle selection trials in Bhopal with a record score. So the second Indian pair too can surprise a few of the top contenders.
Besides the air rifle mixed team event, qualification for men’s and women’s 10m air pistol will also be held on Saturday.
Sarabjot Singh (world No.14) and Arjun Singh Cheema (world No.21) will compete in the men’s competition. Sarabjot is in good form, having recently won gold at the Munich World Cup. Cheema did well in the selection trials and had even finished ahead of Sarabjot.
Much of the spotlight will be on Manu Bhaker in the women’s 10m air pistol event. This will be the world No. 26’s second Olympic appearance after Tokyo. But it’s Rhythm Sangwan, ranked No. 3 in the world, who may put up a stronger show.
Shuttlers on show
The highly-rated Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be in action on Saturday. The Indian boys, who were ranked world No. 1 not too long back, will take on the home pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in a group league match.
Currently ranked world No. 3, Satwik and Chirag are being considered contenders for the men’s doubles gold. They are in good form too. In the last two-odd years, they have conquered numerous peaks and are a much-feared pair on the court.
That they won the French Open earlier this year, must serve as a huge confidence-booster going into the Games which are being held in the French capital. Another advantage for them is a favourable draw.
Satwik and Chirag had a disappointing outing in Tokyo, but since then they have transformed into much better and powerful players.
Besides the men’s doubles team, also playing on Saturday will be Lakshya Sen in men’s singles and the women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa.
Lakshya, when on song, can get the better of even the best shuttles on the circuit.
He will need a good strong start though.