Olympians Manu Bhaker, Divyansh Singh Panwar as well as reigning 10m air rifle champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil are among the 21 shooters to represent India at the Hangzhou Asian Games in China, scheduled from 23 September to 8 October. A provisional squad of shotgun shooters for the Games will be named later.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), while naming 21 shooters( 11 in pistol and 10 in rifle) for Asiad also announced a 22-member rifle and pistol squad team for Baku world championships, to be held from August 14 to September 1 in Azerbaijan. Interestingly, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil is not included in the world championships squad.
While the pistol teams for both the Asian Games and the world championships will remain the same, there will be three changes in the rifle team for the Asian Games. Each country can send a maximum of five shooters for the men’s and women’s rifle events while no such restrictions apply for the world championships.
Olympians Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan,Veteran skeet Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, former trap world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu and the 23-year-old Bhowneesh Mendiratta, who won country’s first Paris 2024 quota after finishing fourth in men’s trap event at the shotgun world championship in Osijek last year, don’t feature in either of the teams.
Hriday Hazarika replaces Rudrankksh Patil in the Baku-bound air rifle contingent while Tilottama Sen drops out of the women’s 10m air rifle squad for Hangzhou. Ashi Chouksey, who is only listed in women’s 50m 3-position at Baku, will compete in both 50m 3P and 10m air rifle at Hangzhou.
Paris 2024 Olympics quota winner Swapnil Kusale will compete in the 50m 3P rifle event alongside Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Akhil Sheoran in Hangzhou but he will be replaced by Niraj Kumar as the third member of the squad at Baku.
The country’s first skeet medalist at an ISSF World Cup Ganemat Sekhon, and Darsha Rathore feature in the proposed shotgun squads.
The NRAI considered scores from four trials and performances at a few international competitions in the first half of 2023 to draw up the provisional shotgun teams.
Team for Asian Games
Men’s
10m air rifle: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudrankksh Patil
50m rifle 3-position: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran
10m air pistol: Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal, Arjun Singh Cheema
25m rapid fire pistol: Anish, Vijayveer Sidhu, Adarsh Singh
Women’s
10m air rifle: Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh, Ashi Chouksey
50m rifle 3-position: Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, Manini Kaushik
10m air pistol: Divya TS, Esha Singh, Palak
25m sports pistol: Rhythm Sangwan, Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh
