Divyansh Singh Panwar breaks 10m air rifle world record to win ISSF World Cup gold

During last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, Divyansh Singh Panwar watched from the sidelines as China’s Sheng Lihao became 10m air rifle champion with a world record of 253.3. With only two Indian shooters eligible for the eight-man final, Panwar was behind compatriots Rudrankksh Patil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.

However, on Sunday at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo, the 21-year-old Panwar broke Lihao’s world record with a final score of 253.7.

“Coming into the final, I was confident about the process and technique and my aim was to focus on my scores and shooting. It feels good to see the hard training reaping dividends,” Panwar told ISSF TV.

Hailing from Rajasthan, where his father Ashok Panwar works as a senior nursing staff at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College, Panwar came to the spotlight with multiple medals at the ISSF Junior World Cups in 2019 before he claimed a Tokyo Olympics quota place with a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in China. The subsequent two years would see him becoming the 10m air rifle champion at the ISSF World Cup final in Putian apart from winning a bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi as well as an Asian Championships gold.

Hailing from Rajasthan, where his father Ashok Panwar works as a senior nursing staff at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College, Panwar came to the spotlight with multiple medals at the ISSF Junior World Cups in 2019 before he claimed a Tokyo Olympics quota place with a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in China.

The youngster, who had shot a then-world record score of 253.1 in one of the national trials five months prior to the Tokyo Olympics, was once ranked world number one, and was expected to make the eight-shooter final in Tokyo, but finished a distant 32nd.

A disappointed Panwar would take a break from shooting and spend some time with personal coach Deepak Kumar Dubey in Delhi before undertaking a vipassana course in Rishikesh for two weeks.

“Divyansh understood that he is young and setbacks like these can happen to anybody. The vipassana course let him gather his thoughts after what happened in Tokyo. Once he was able to do that, he shot more freely and did not worry about his place in the Indian team,” says Dubey.

As mentioned stunning shooting @DivyanshSinghP7 as sets a new #WorldRecord in the final🔥🔥🔥#IndianShooting #ISSFWorldCup #Cairo #India pic.twitter.com/RzRm4bxp7h

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) January 28, 2024

Four months after the disappointment in Tokyo, Panwar became the junior and senior national champion. He also returned to competing at the junior level in 2022. With shooters like Rudrankksh Patil, Arjun Babuta and Aishwary Singh Tomar in the Indian team, Panwar would often compete in Ranking Points Only (RPO) category in World Cups with a ninth place-finish in the Baku World Cup last year being his only appearance in the competitive category. He shot a score of 633.1 to miss a berth in the final.

He had another score of 633.0 in the Cairo World Cup competing in the RPO category before making it to the Asian Games team last year.

“We worked on changing his back-bending position and once he changed his rifle, he adjusted well to it. We also have him shoot 100-110 shots on off-competition days to let him relax,” says Dubey.

On Sunday, Panwar topped the qualification with a score of 632.4. In the final, he led after the first series and lost his lead only once to Lazar Kovacevic of Serbia in the second series before getting it back.

Gold🥇!!! Stunning shooting by @DivyanshSinghP7 as he wins the 10m air rifle at the @issf_official World Cup in Cairo with a score of 253.7 in the final.#IndianShooting #ISSFWorldCup #India pic.twitter.com/5SQdzV1MTD

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) January 28, 2024

Panwar scored 10.5 or more on 18 out of his 25 shots in the final, with three 10.9s, to end up with the world record and the gold medal.

“He had a sound technique right from his junior days. During the last one year, we worked on some of the technicalities of his shooting apart from instilling the belief of being a world-beater once again in his mind. He shot with a free mind today and that’s what we want,” said Indian team’s rifle coach Suma Shirur.

While Panwar was ranked fourth behind Patil, Tomar and Babuta in the national rankings last month, the youngster will have to be in the top five for the Paris Olympics trials later this year. “Having such competition works well for each of these shooters and each one of them is ambitious. So it gives them a much-needed motivation,” says Shirur.

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