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Anish Bhanwala's wait extends as ISSF revises plan for ranking-based Olympic quotas
by Tushar DuttPUNE: Anish Bhanwala will have to wait for one more year and do well in the World Cup next year before he could seal the 25m rapid fire pistol ranking-based quota for the Tokyo Olympics.
Shooters hopeful of clinching ranking-based quotas for the Tokyo Games will have to participate in a World Cup next year as the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) has revised their quota-distribution system for next year’s Olympics.
The ISSF had originally planned to announce the 12 ranking-based quotas (one in each event) by May, however, since all the international action, including three World Cups, has been cancelled this year due to the spread of coronavirus, the world body was forced to revise their plan.
The new deadline for Tokyo 2020 qualification is June 6, 2021.
News in Brief
Since all shooters above him were ineligible to win a quota, 12th-placed Anish was poised to get a berth in 25m rapid fire pistol event if the ISSF went by the rankings till March 2020. Now Anish cannot take his place for granted as he will have to do well in the World Cup slotted in March next year.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Pasternak (ranked 17), USA’s Keith Sanderson (ranked 18) and Estonia’s Peeter Olesk (ranked 19) will be Anish’s closest rivals. Anish will have to finish with a medal to make sure he wins the quota. The ranking-based quota goes directly to the qualified shooter and not the country, as otherwise.
India has not won any quota in men’s 25m rapid fire, men’s trap, women’s trap and skeet events. However, there are slim or no chance of Indians getting closer to winning ranking-based quotas in these events as they are placed too low in the ranking.
“The shooters had missed one competition this year before the rankings quotas could be distributed. To be fair to the shooters, the ISSF had proposed to conduct that ‘one’ missed opportunity to them before announcing the final cut-off list. It is official as the proposal has been approved by the International Olympic Committee,” ISSF secretary general Alex Ratner told TOI.
Ratner added that the date and venue of the competition has not been decided yet.
The ISSF had introduced the ranking-based quotas for the first time. The idea is to give one quota in each event (six men, six women) to the top-ranked eligible shooter.