Anish Bhanwala adds World Cup Final medal in 25m Rapid Fire shooting to Paris Olympic quota

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 medallist Harpreet Singh.

“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.”