Sports News
Commonwealth Games in Australia: 23-yr-old to represent India in shooting this year
Moudgill, who is a sub-inspector with the Punjab Police, will compete in the women’s 50 M Rifle 3 Position and 50 M Rifle Prone event for the CWG after she topped the National Rifle Association of India score list after a series of trials earlier this month.
Three months after she won two medals in the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Brisbane, 23-year-old shooter Anjum Moudgill has made her way into the Indian shooting team for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia in April this year.
Moudgill, who is a sub-inspector with the Punjab Police, will compete in the women’s 50 M Rifle 3 Position and 50 M Rifle Prone event for the CWG after she topped the National Rifle Association of India score list after a series of trials earlier this month.
“It feels good to be selected to represent the country in the Commonwealth Games. I have been preparing hard for this since the last two years and the main target has been Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The trials were challenging as the pattern was changed.
We had to shoot 120 shots instead of 60 in the 50 M Rifle and 60 shots instead of 40 in the 10 M Air Rifle events. I was aiming a consistent score in the trials as well and I am happy that I can adapt to the changed pattern,” Moudgill said, who completed her masters in Psychology from DAV College, Chandigarh, last year.
Moudgill, who started shooting on the insistence of her father advocate Sudershan Moudgill, won her first medal in the senior category when she won the gold medal in 50 M Rifle 3 P event in South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016 before winning the silver medal in the same event in the World University Games in Poland last year.
In the Commonwealth Shooting championships in Brisbane in November last year, the youngster won the silver medal in 10 M Air Rifle apart from winning a bronze medal in the 50 M Rifle Prone event. The two NRAI trials earlier this month saw Moudgill returning with scores of a scores of 577.50 and 581.50 in 50 M Rifle 3 P and score of 621.8 and 620.1 respectively in 50 M Rifle Prone. The shooter topped in both the events after the selection list was made considering her past scores in six months.
“The medals in Commonwealth Shooting championships last year came at a right time as the CWG will be hosted by the same shooting range. In Poland, I narrowly missed the gold medal to finish behind World Champion China’s Dongqui Chen.
Competing in three events in trails as well at the national and international level is a challenge and the more I shoot, the more confidence I get. In 2014, I was fourth in the trials and missed the CWG/Asian Games. We will soon have a training camp ahead of the CWG and I am looking forward to it,” shared Moudgill.
National junior coach Deepali Deshpande has trained Moudgill since 2012 and believes that her biggest strength has been shooting consistent scores. “Anjum is in her best form right now. Her main strength has been shooting consistent scores and that’s what she scored in the trials.
A lot of junior shooters shoot high scores but cannot maintain consistency. She had handled pressure in different situations well and it has helped her. Our main target is 2020 Olympics and CWG/Asian Games are stepping stones in her big target. We will make some changes during the break and she is raring to go,” shared 48-year-old Deshpande.
