Kottayam (Kerala): Former India national shooting coach Sunny Thomas has predicted that India will win a medal in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed event. There will be medal competition for the event in the 10m air rifle mixed team event on Saturday. India's two teams will compete in the qualifying round. Both teams can advance to the medal round considering their form in the recent times.
India has world record in the 10m air rifle mixed team event with the score of 635.8. The Indian team achieved it at the World Cup held in Cairo, Egypt, in February 2023. However, none of the team members at that time are appearing in this edition. All the countries, including India and China, who are the powerhouses of the event, are fielding two teams each in the qualification round.
India's former shooting coach, Sunny Thomas, told ETV Bharat that the two pairs who have qualified for the mixed team event from India have good medal chances. Ramita Jindal, who won gold in the 10m rifle individual and women's team events at the Junior World Championships, and Arjun Babuta, who finished second in the mixed team event at the World Cup in Cairo, are in great form.
Ilavenil Valarivan from Tamil Nadu, who was the women's category champion in last year's Rio World Cup, is a player with a lot of experience in international competitions. Sandeep Singh, who is participating in the Olympics for the first time, is also a world-class star.
Dronacharya awardee Sunny Thomas, who coached the Indian national team for 19 years, retired after taking Indian shooting to the top of the world. From Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, the athletes won medals at the Olympic venues in shooting did it under Sunny Thomas's tutelage.
- How medal is decided
A total of 28 teams will compete in the qualification round. The four teams with highest number of points will qualify for the medal matches. The bronze medal match will be played between the teams finishing at the third and the fourth position. The gold medal match will be played between the first and second-placed teams.
- Competition Format
Each shooter must aim at the bull's eye on a paper target from a distance of 10 meters using a rifle with a 5.6 mm diameter barrel. The maximum permissible weight of the rifle is 5.5 kg. Each team will have 6 series of 10 shots in the mixed team format.
Each player in the team must shoot 30 shots. The team will have a total of 75 minutes. The maximum points for a shot in the qualification round is 10.9. The maximum score a team can achieve is 654.
- Point system in medal match
Sunny Thomas explained that the 10m air rifle mixed team event uses a different point system. In the medal match between two teams, depending on the points scored by each team in a series of 10 shots, the team with more points will receive 2 points. The first team to score 16 points will win. In case of a tie, a tiebreaker will be used.
