Cairo, April 20
The junior shooters will make their season debut, competing for two medals in the 10m Air Rifle Women and 10m Air Pistol Men events as the first day of the ISSF Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun begins at the Egypt International Olympic City.
India has sent a robust team of 71 shooters, with the initial group of 58 athletes and support staff arriving in Cairo on Sunday.
Day one of the competition begins with the 25m Pistol Precision stage for both men and women, along with 75 targets for skeet for men and women. The qualification round starts at 12:30 PM IST (9 AM local time). This is followed by the qualification for 10m Air Rifle Women, the first medal event of the day, at 12:45 PM IST (9:15 AM local time), with the final at 3:30 PM IST (12 Noon local time). The second medal event, 10m Air Pistol Men, begins at 3:00 PM IST (11:30 AM local time), with the final scheduled for 5:45 PM IST (2:15 PM).
India has entered six participants in the 10m Air Rifle Women event, led by Asian Junior record holder and 2025 ISSF World Cup Suhl champion Shambhavi Kshirsagar. She will be joined by 2025 Asian Champion in 50m Rifle 3 Positions Anushka Thokur, along with 2026 Asian Championships silver and bronze medalists Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma, bronze medalist Anvii Rathod from the 2024 Asian Championships, and Panaah Bhugra.
The 10m Air Pistol Men's event will feature six athletes from India, led by Shiva Narwal, the former Junior World Champion and 2023 World Championship gold medalist in the mixed event, who will compete internationally after three years. The lineup also includes Deaflympics 2025 champion Abhinav Deshwal, along with Abhinav Choudhary, Abhay Dhama, Himanshu Rana, and 17-year-old Chirag Sharma.
A maximum of three athletes from each country, specifically the top three ranked after the qualification round, will advance to the final.
Sameer Gulia, a medallist at both the World Championship and Junior World Championship, is the most well-known figure in India's 25m Pistol team. In the men's category, Abhinav Choudhary, Sahil Choudhary, Sagnik Banerjee, Pranshu Suryavanshi, and Bhanu Pratap Singh Shekhawat will compete for medals, while the women's event will see Parisha Gupta, Anjali Mahendra Bhagwat, Agam Kaur Grewal, Manvi Jain, Sejal Kamble, and Shikha Chaudhary participate.
In the Skeet event, India will be represented by five male athletes, Zoarawar Singh Bedi, Harviraj Singh, Ishaan Singh Libra, Yashvardhan Singh Rajawat, and Anjaneya Singh Mandawa, and four female athletes, Risham Kaur Guron, Parmeet Kaur, Agrima Kanwar, and Sanyogita Shekhawat, who will compete on Tuesday.
A total of 284 athletes from 25 countries will compete in Cairo, with India sending the largest team. The host nation, Egypt, has a 29-member squad, while Russia, competing as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN), has entered a sizable 43-member team. Other prominent shooting nations with large squads include France (24), Great Britain (16), and Italy (13).
With the Junior World Championships scheduled for June in Suhl, Germany, this presents a valuable opportunity for Indian juniors to establish their position for that premier event.
- IANS
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