A record 13,522 shooters have qualified to participate in the 67th national shooting championships, set to get underway at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Faridabad from Wednesday, heralding the beginning of a brand-new season.

While the Shotgun (Dec 11 to Jan19) and Pistol (Dec 13 – Jan 05) competitions will be held at the DKSSR, Bhopal’s M.P. State Shooting Academy ranges will hold the Rifle nationals from December 15-31.

Advertisement

The opening day will witness official pre-event training for Skeet shooters belonging to Group 2 and Group 3 on schedule, with qualification rounds beginning on Thursday. Group 1 shooters take to the ranges from December 21. Both the defending champions Anant Jeet Singh Naruka in men’s skeet and Ganemat Sekhon in the women’s skeet, will be there to defend their crowns.

A total of 837 Shotgun shooters across the Skeet, Trap and Double Trap events will be competing across five classifications which include master, senior master and super master, besides the senior and junior classifications.

Rifle has seen the maximum entries with 7,013 participants across classifications while the Pistol nationals will see 5,672 competitors vying for the coveted national champion crown.

Sharing his thoughts ahead of the nationals, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president, said, “We are very excited with the growing popularity of the sport in the country which has resulted in such record participation in the nationals. Our consistent international success and particularly the performance of our shooters at the Paris Olympics earlier this year where we came back with a record three bronze medals, has certainly contributed to these numbers.”

Also enthused was K. Sultan Singh, NRAI secretary general, saying, “Our next Olympic champions and medallists or at least some of them will come from these nationals. Indian shooting now has an even bigger responsibility to deliver on the world stage and the enthusiasm and talent seen among the upcoming youngsters makes us believe that we will take the sport to even greater heights.”

A total of 40 teams will be represented at the 67th shooting nationals including almost all states and union territories as well as those representing the armed forces of the country and public institutions like the ONGC and the Railways.

All top shooters of the country will be participating in the nationals, whose scores will be counted when the Indian team for the 2025 international season is declared