Asian Shooting C’ship: 41-member Indian squad announced

Thirty-eight Olympic quota places will be up for grabs in the tournament.

Sanjeev Rajput will participate in the MQS section of the 10m air rifle.

Olympian Annu Raj Singh has two chances to win medals — besides the opportunity to secure an Olympic quota spot — from the Asian Championship to be held in Doha, Qatar, in November.

Annu Raj, who had competed in the London Olympics, will be participating in both the air pistol and sports pistol events in Doha.

The 14-year-old Esha Singh, who had tied on averages with Annu Raj in women’s air pistol, has been fielded in the junior section.

Since Yashaswini Deswal and Manu Bhaker have already won the maximum possible two Olympic quota spots in air pistol, India will only be gunning for the women’s sports pistol quota to add to the one won by Rahi Sarnobat.

Shreyasi gets the nod

In women’s trap, former national champion Shreyasi Singh got the nod to make the team, after she was in the fourth place, 0.02 point behind Soumya Gupta. The recent good scores of 116 and 117 must have weighed in favour of Shreyasi, who will be looking for the Olympic quota along with Kirti Gupta and Rajeshwari Kumari.

The onus will be on Olympians Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai, apart from Prithviraj Tondaiman, to secure the quota in men’s trap. In skeet also, the responsibility will be in the hands of able men — Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Asian champion Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, and Smit Singh.

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Deepak Kumar, who missed the quota narrowly in the last World Cup in Rio, along with Yash Vardhan and Kiran Ankush Jadhav, will try to win the second Olympic quota in men’s air rifle.

Olympian Chain Singh, the young Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Parul Kumar will try to win the second Olympic quota, to the one won by Sanjeev Rajput in Rio, in the rifle 3-position event.

Shreyasi Singh will participate in the women's trap. File Photo: Getty Images

India has bright chances in men's rapid fire pistol thanks particularly to the efficiency of Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh.

It will be interesting to see how well former World Champion Tejaswini Sawant, Gaayathri Nithyanandam and Kajal Saini handle the challenge of winning the Olympic berth in the women’s rifle 3-position event.

There will be Indian shooters in the non-Olympic events like rifle prone, standard pistol, centre fire pistol and free pistol. India will also be fielding junior and youth shooters in all the events meant for them.