Entertainment
In the ISSF World Cup, Divyansh Singh Panwar breaks the record.


By Kajal Sharma - 29 Jan 2024 10:40 PM
Divyansh Singh Panwar saw from the sidelines as China's Sheng Lihao set a world record of 253.3 to win the 10m air rifle competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. Only two Indian shooters, Rudrankksh Patil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, were qualified for the eight-man final. Panwar was behind them.But with a final score of 253.7 on Sunday at the ISSF global Cup in Cairo, the 21-year-old Panwar smashed Lihao's global record."I felt confident in my technique and approach going into the final, and my goal was to concentrate on my shooting and score. Panwar told ISSF TV, "It is fantastic to see the hard training paying off.Panwar, who is from Rajasthan and whose father Ashok Panwar is a senior nurse staff member at Sawai Man Singh Medical College, gained notoriety in 2019 when he won multiple medals at the ISSF Junior World Cups, and then secured a quota spot for the Tokyo Olympics with a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in China. In addition to taking home a bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi and an Asian Championship gold, he would go on to capture the 10m air rifle title at the ISSF World Cup final in Putian over the next two years.The young athlete was originally ranked number one in the world and was predicted to make the eight-shooter final in Tokyo, but he ended a distant 32nd.
Five months before the Olympics in Tokyo, the athlete had shot a then-world record score of 253.1 in one of the national trials.After spending some time in Delhi with his personal coach Deepak Kumar Dubey, Panwar will take a two-week hiatus from shooting to participate in a vipassana course in Rishikesh. "Divyansh recognized that despite his youth, anyone might experience failures of this nature. After what transpired in Tokyo, the vipassana course allowed him to collect his thoughts. He shot more freely and stopped worrying about his spot in the Indian team after he was able to accomplish it, according to Dubey.After the setback in Tokyo, Panwar emerged as the junior and senior national champion four months later. In 2022, he resumed junior competition as well. With shooters like Aishwary Singh Tomar, Arjun Babuta, and Rudrankksh Patil on the Indian squad, Panwar would frequently participate in the Ranking Points Only (RPO) category at World Cups. His lone appearance in the competitive category came in the Baku World Cup last year, where he finished in ninth place. He missed a spot in the final with a score of 633.1.Before being selected for the Asian Games squad last year, he earned another score of 633.0 in the Cairo World Cup while competing in the RPO category. After we worked on modifying his backbend, he did a good job acclimating to his new firearm. On days when he is not competing, we also have him fire 100–110 shots to help him unwind," adds Dubey. Panwar won the qualifier on Sunday with a score of 632.4. He was ahead after the first series in the final and narrowly trailed Serbia's Lazar Kovacevic in the second series before regaining the lead.