Ace shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Anjum Moudgil will make their national comeback during next month’s Asian Olympic qualifiers in Jakarta and Kuwait City respectively.
While the qualifiers for rifle and pistol events will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from January 5 to 18, the shotgun qualifiers will take place in Kuwait City from January 12 to 23.
India have fielded a 20-member rifle and pistol squad, while a 12-shooter contingent will represent the country in the shotgun qualifiers.
A total of 16 quotas for next year’s Olympics at Paris are up for grabs in Jakarta for rifle and pistol events, while eight spots are available in the shotgun competition.
The Indian shooters have already won 13 quota spots for Paris Games and will be looking to add to that tally in these tournaments.
According to a National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) release, the squads have been selected on the basis of current domestic rankings and those who already have been qualified are left out.
In the Jakarta event, India will be looking to add to their pistol quotas in particular, given five more spots are still to be won. All the eight quota places in rifle events have already been secured.
In Kuwait, India have six quota places to aim for — four in skeet and two in trap shooting.
Pistol shooter Gurpreet Singh will also be seen in action in Jakarta.
Sri Karthik Sabari Raj (men’s 10m air rifle), Ujjawal Malik (men’s 10m air pistol) and Bhavya Tripathi (women’s trap) will make their senior team debuts.
Three shooters — Tilottama Sen (women’s 10m air rifle, ranked seventh), Shriyanka Sadangi (women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, ranked seventh) and Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap, ranked sixth), who are quota holders and not among the top three, have also been included in the squad to shoot in the RPO (ranking points only) category and will not be competing for medals.
Four other quota holders expressed their inability to participate in these competitions.
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