National Rifle Association of India names team for WC in Cairo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

In what may come as a relief for the Indian shooters, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has sent its entry for the upcoming ISSF World Cup to be held in Cairo, Egypt.

The NRAI selection committee took into consideration the qualification scores and the final ranking points from the 64th national shooting championships to decide on the team.

A number of prominent shooters, including Manu Bhaker, Abhishek Verma, former world No.1 Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil are out. Only Sanjeev Rajput, Saurabh Chaudhary, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, Divyansh Panwar and Rahi Sarnobat have made it from the Tokyo Olympics squad.

The NRAI has said they were forced to cancel the selection trials early this month due to rising Covid-19 cases in the country.

It has also been decided to hold a national camp in New Delhi from February 9 ahead of the departure for the World Cup beginning February 26.

Importantly, the NRAI has also decided to send a few coaches, who were sacked in the aftermath of a disastrous Tokyo campaign, to take over the team for this World Cup.

Deepali Deshpande, Manoj Kumar and Daleep Singh Chandel will oversee the rifle team, while Samaresh Jung, Ved Prakash and Ronak Pandit have the pistol team to supervise.

“We could not have held the trials as today was the last date for sending entries for the Cairo World Cup. The selection committee decided to select the team based on the national championships as this was the only available option for us right now,” NRAI secretary general K Sultan Singh told The Tribune today.

As per the one-off selection criteria top-three ranked shooters with the Minimum Travelling Score (MTS) – set for each discipline have been selected. The fourth-ranked shooter who had the same average score as the third-ranked shooter has also been selected.

Shotgun trials to be held

While there have been no selection trials in the rifle and pistol category, the NRAI has decided to hold the trials for the shotgun team, again in the first week of February for the upcoming shotgun event in Nicosia, Cyprus from March 8.

“We will definitely hold a trial for the shotgun team as we have time on our hands. Although the last date for sending entries is February 7, we are confident that the organising committee will extend the date for us,” Singh added.

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