Anish Bhanwala adds World Cup Final medal in 25m Rapid Fire shooting to Paris Olympic quota | Sport-others News

After Anish Bhanwala won the bronze medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire final at the ISSF World Cup final in Doha, the 21-year-old youngster was congratulated Rio Olympic champion Chrian Reitz. The German didn’t make the six-shooter final, but was watching the action unfold intently.
“Like any other shooter, I idolise Chrian Reitz. Earlier this year, when I had won my first senior World Cup medal in Cairo, he had finished fourth and that time too, he had congratulated me. To win a medal here in the World Cup Final feels surreal,” Anish told The Indian Express from Doha.
Bhanwala became the first Indian shooter to win a medal in the event in the World Cup Final. Earlier Vijay Kumar had reached the final in 2009 while Gurpreet Singh had reached the final in 2015.

Anish, who became the national champion competing against a field including Vijay Kumar in 2017, had become junior world champion the same year before defending his title in 2018. The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games brought a medal again as he started making a name at the senior level too. Though medals alluded him at the world level with a couple of close finishes at ISSF World Cups in 2019 and 2021, his biggest heartbreak was the fifth-place finish in ISSF World Cup in Delhi in 2021, where a higher finish would have fetched the country an Tokyo Olympics quota on the basis of world ranking.
The youngster started this year with a bronze medal at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo. “Right from his junior days, Anish understood that 25m Rapid Fire is one of the most technical and competitive events in shooting and it takes years to win an Olympic or World medal in this discipline. Post every close finish, he would return to the basics happily and would not ever crib about missing a medal,” says his coach and 2010 Commonwealth Games medall Harpreet Singh.
Anish Bhanwala during the game. (Special arrangement)
“In 2020, I had told him that it would take him four more years to win a medal at the world level. I am glad that he has done it in three years and that too in the World Cup Final.”
After finishing 22nd at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the youngster won a Paris Olympics quota for India in the event with a bronze medal in the Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, Korea last month. On Friday, Anish was the last to qualify for the six-shooter final as he shot a score of 581. Fifth-placed world number one and two-time Olympic bronze medall Yuehong Li of China shot 586 and world number three German Florian Peter topping the qualification field of the world’s top 16 shooters with a score of 587. The final started on an inauspicious note for world number eight Anish as he missed three shots in his first 10 and was placed joint fourth along with China’s Jueming Zhang and world number two Clement Bessaguet of France.
Fluctuating fortunes
With Peter remaining in the lead with 20 hits out of the first 20, Anish too shot a perfect third and fourth series to share second place with Matej Rampula of the Czech Republic as Li with Zhang were eliminated. The fifth series saw the Indian scoring four shots and he was one shot behind third-placed Rampula.
With Anish making only two shots in the sixth series and Rampula only needing two shots to edge out the Indian for a medal, the Czech shooter missed all five shots as Anish was assured of at least a bronze.”
Anish Bhanwala in the final of ISSF World Cup in final in Doha. (Special arrangement)
“It was almost like an Olympic competition with the world’s top shooters except Reitz sir making the final. When you compete against such a small group and the world’s top-ranked shooters, even qualifying for the final is very tough. When I saw Florian, with whom I have shot since my junior days, shooting 5s, I felt I could do the same and got the rhythm in the final.
“Incidentally, when I had won my first international medal in 2017, Rampula had missed his whole series and it resulted in me winning the medal. But then that’s Rapid Fire for you and anything can happen in the finals,” says Anish, who first competed in the ISSF World Cup final in 2019.
He has already bagged an Paris Olympic quota, but the Haryana shooter knows the task ahead for him. “We have been working on changes in my grip as well as elbow position and our target is to make it perfectly aligned. Once I am able to seal my place, it’s all about doing the same things again and again and increasing the training load to face the Olympics pressure,” says Bhanwala.
However, coach Harpreet is not thinking about putting any additional pressure on his ward. “He will come and show me the trophy and then be like a young kid aiming to learn whatever he can about 25m Rapid Fire. That’s what will take him way ahead.”