New Delhi, Oct 12 (Shooting News) Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar, Manu Bhaker and Anjum Moudgil will be among 66 shooters from India who will vie for over 30 Paris Olympics quota paces when the ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol gets underway in Cairo on Thursday.
A total of 32 Paris 2024 Olympics quota places are up for grabs, four each across four Olympic men's and women's individual events.
An exhaustive list of 70 events, including 10 Olympic events, across the two disciplines spread among senior and junior categories, are on the roster, with the final medals to be distributed over a fortnight later on October 27.
Day one of competitions has a solitary medal event, the junior women’s 25m pistol team competition, where India will be represented by Esha Singh, Naamya Kapoor and Vibhuti Bhatia.
It is a six-nation field first up and the Indians will be hopeful of the brightest possible start with three in-form shooters representing them. China, Germany, Ukraine, Korea and the USA complete the line-up.
This Indian pistol and rifle squad has a number of new faces and many who will be playing in their first world championships, widely considered the ultimate level of competition in the sport by shooting athletes.
However, also part of the squad is London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar who is on a comeback trail.
Anjum Moudgil, Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, are the surviving members from that Tokyo squad who will be seen in action in Cairo as well.
Many team members, though, were part of the ISSF World Cup stage, held at the same venue in February-March this year- a competition which India topped.
A total of 32 quota places have already been distributed including 16 in the recently concluded Shogtun World Championships in Osijek, Croatia, where India secured one quota in men’s trap through a fourth-place finish by young Bhowneesh Mendiratta.
Cairo, will present the first opportunity to rifle and pistol shooters outside Europe, to win Paris quotas and all top competitors would like to secure theirs at the first instance.
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News Source : PTI
