Shooters Manavjit, Moudgil to make national return in Asian Olympic qualifiers

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.

Representative Image: 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. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Former World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Olympians Gurpreet Singh and Anjum Moudgil have strengthened the Indian team for the Asian Olympic qualifiers to be staged in Jakarta and Kuwait in January.

The Indian squad would be looking to win the trap and skeet quota places in the Asian shotgun Olympic qualifier to be staged in Kuwait from January 12 to 22. India has so far won two trap quota places through Bhowneesh Mendiratta and Rajeshwari Kumari.

India has already won all possible eight quota places in rifle events. It will look to win the pistol quota places in the Asian qualifier scheduled to be staged in Jakarta from January 5 to 18.

Some of the quota winners Rudrankksh Patil, Arjun Babuta, Mehuli Ghosh, Tilottama Sen, Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran and Sift Kaur Samra will also be part of the Asian event, some in the RPO (ranking points only) section, in a bid to retain their competitive edge.

India has so far won 13 out of a maximum possible 24 Olympic qualification spots for the Paris Games next year.

Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan will compete in both the air pistol and sports pistol events to secure the Olympic quota.

As per the rules, a country can win only one quota place in an event in an ISSF championship.

The team:

Air rifle: Rudrankksh Patil, Arjun Babuta, Sri Karthik Sabari Raj; Mehuli Ghosh, Elavenil Valarivan, Nancy, Tilottama Sen.

50m rifle 3-position: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran; Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, Anjum Moudgil, Shriyanka Sadangi.

Air pistol: Arjun Singh Cheema, Varun Tomar, Ujjawal Malik; Rhythm Sangwan, Surbhi Rao, Esha Singh.

25m rapid fire pistol: Vijayveer Sidhu, Bhavesh Shekhawat, Gurpreet Singh.

25m sports pistol: Esha Singh, Simranpreet Kaur Brar, Rhythm Sangwan.

Trap: Lakshay Sheoran, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Manavjit Singh Sandhu; Manisha Keer, Bhavya Tripathi, Shreyasi Singh.

Skeet: Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Gurjoat Singh Khangura, Munek Battula; Ganemat Sekhon, Raiza Dhillon, Maheshwari Chauhan.