The first World University Championships Shooting Sport event was due to be held in 2002 at Pilsen, in Czechia, although it took place a year later due to flooding at the venue.
This debut edition of a competition that will take place for the eighth time in New Delhi from November 9 to 13 attracted 217 athletes from 24 countries.
Among them was 19-year-old home representative Martin Podhrasky, (pictured), who earned bronze in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol.
He went on to compete at the Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Paris 2024 Olympics and this year won the Olympic Qualification Championship in Rio de Janeiro as well as the ISSF World Cup in Baku.
Gold in the 50m rifle 3 positions men went to Hungary’s 25-year-old Peter Sidi. He had already competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he finished 13th in the 50m rifle prone men, and a year later he was 12th in the 10m air rifle men at the 2004 Athens Games.
He went on to compete at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, producing his best result at the latter Games as he finished fifth in the 10m air rifle men.
Sidi had won world bronze in the 50m rifle 3 positions a year before competing in Pilsen, and added world silver in 2006 in the 300m rifle prone men before taking gold and silver at the 2010 World Championships in Munich in the 50m rifle 3 positions and 10m air rifle respectively.