Bhaker to represent India in 3 events in Olympics

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 COVID-19 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.