World Cup Final: Top shooters look to end year on a high

New Delhi: End of an Olympics cycle typically fills athletes with a sense of void. It’s the time for assessment and course correction. It’s also an opportunity to rest and reset. So, when Suma Shirur, India’s national rifle coach at the Paris Olympics, says the World Cup Final “just a follow-up competition after the Olympics” one gets a glimpse of how shooters look at this event, coming as it does a little over two months after the Games.
Technically, it is the start of the new Olympics cycle, but realistically it’s a year-ending event that shooters wish to finish well before heading to a break.
South Korea’s Song Jong-ho, who competed at the Paris Olympics in the 25m pistol event, already has his holiday plans in place. An avid mountain biker and skateboarder, he plans to hit the hills after the Delhi event. China’s Liu Yukun, the Olympic 50m 3P gold medallist, will return to fishing to recover after a demanding year.
Not everybody, however, will enter the competition in a holiday spirit. For Korea’s Yang Ji-in, the World Cup Final will present a challenge to live up to expectations. Soon after she won the Olympic 25m pistol gold, Yang headed to her national championships to “eliminate errors” in her game.
“Though I won gold in Paris, my shooting was not perfect. I was shooting much better in training. My goal in Delhi will be to shoot as well as I do in training,” Yang, whose hobbies include playing Sudden Attack, a Korean shooting-based video game, says.
India’s 10m air rifle shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar, who couldn’t make it to the Paris squad, will have a point to prove. He took a break from the sport for three months and travelled in Indonesia. He is now finalising plans to train in the USA.
“I figured I needed to understand the mindset of the Chinese and the US shooters. The Chinese are typically secretive, so I want to spend some time in the US and train at their ranges. The World Cup Final will put me in the right competitive frame,” he says.
“For someone like me who missed the Olympics berth, there’s a lot riding on this event, especially from the perspective of confidence,” the former world No.1 adds.
A total of 131 shooters from 37 nations will compete in 12 individual Olympic events. The top six from the combined six ISSF World Cup stages held in 2024, Paris Olympics medallists, defending World Cup Final champions and reigning world champions have earned direct qualification.
India have entered 23 shooters, two each in all the events. Pistol shooter Rhythm Sangwan is the only one who will compete in two events – 10m and 25m. Paris medallists Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale have skipped the event.
“I don’t think their absence will take the sheen off the contest,” National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Kalikesh Singh Deo said. “It’s a great platform to test our bench. Don’t forget the journey to LA 2028 begins now. We have seen in the past few Olympic cycles that the team changes after every Games. A lot of young shooters may come up at this event.”
Shirur agreed. “The level of competition will be very high, which means some of our younger shooters will have a lot to learn. It is a follow-up event after the Olympics. There’s no way Olympic athletes will peak again in two months.”
“A lot of shooters don’t wish to end the year with the Olympics because they tend to carry the tension for many months. They look at the year-end competition to relax and assess their game for the next season,” she said.
The contract of all the national coaches and High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp ended with the Olympics, which means there won’t be any full-time coaches for India at the event.