Indian shooting team announced for Asian Championship; last chance before Tokyo

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has named a 41-member strong Indian squad in a bid to secure the maximum number of possible Olympic quotas in the upcoming Asian Championship. With a considerable total of 38 quotas up for grabs, the tournament which is slated to be held in Doha from November 3 will be of great importance for the shooters. It will, in fact, be the last tournament which offers Olympic qualification.

Indian shooters have already assured nine quotas at last month's ISSF World Cup, the latest being young sensation Yashaswini Singh Deswal who joined the likes of Sanjeev Rajput, Saurabh Choudhury, Divyansh Singh Parmer, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil, Abhishek Verma, Rahi Sarnobat, and Manu Bhaker.

The team was decided after the selection committee meeting of the NRAI, in Delhi on Wednesday. The Indian contingent will comprise of shooters across the 15 Olympic events, including six entries only for the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section.

A notable selection was the fielding of seasoned rifle shooter Sanjeev Rajput in the MQS section of the men's 10m air rifle event. This was done to ensure that in a situation the second quota in the event is not earned, Sanjeev can be kept for the event for Tokyo. Divyansh Panwar has earned one quota for India in the 10m air rifle out of a maximum possible two till now.

There are also some new faces who will be seen for the first time in senior India colours in the Olympic events. Among them, Shravan Kumar (in men's 10m air pistol) will join the duo of Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary. Representing the tricolour for the first time in an international event, Neeraj Kaur, in women's 25m Pistol, will be eyeing to make a dream debut.

Also, in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol, where there are four quotas to be won in Doha, Bhavesh Shekhawat will partner the likes of Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh.

The Indian contingent

Men's team:

Air pistol: Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Sharvan Kumar.

Rapid fire pistol: Anish Bhanwala, Bhavesh Shekhawat, Adarsh Singh.

Air rifle: Deepak Kumar, Yash Vardhan, Kiran Ankush Jadhav.

MQS: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Sanjeev Rajput

Rifle 3-position: Parul Kumar, Chain Singh, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar.

MQS: Sanjeev Rajput.

Trap: Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai, Prithviraj Tondaiman.

Skeet: Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, Smit Singh, Mairaj Ahmad Khan.

Women's team

Air pistol: Yashaswini Singh Deswal, Manu Bhaker, Annu Raj Singh.

Sports pistol: Annu Raj Singh, Chinki Yadav, Neeraj Kaur. MQS: Rahi
Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker.

Air rifle: Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan.
MQS: Mehuli Ghosh.

Rifle 3-posiiton: Tejaswini Sawant, Gaayathri Nithyanandam, Kajal Saini.

Trap: Kirti Gupta, Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh. MQS: Soumya Gupta.

Skeet: Ganemat Sekhon, Saniya Sheikh, Darshna Rathore.