Olympic quota holders to take part in invitation-only Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters Championship

Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, who has also secured the Olympic quota, was missing from the 25-metre women’s sports pistol list, possibly because she may have a different training programme with her coach Munkhbayar Dorjsuren of Germany.

The women’s air pistol event will feature Manu Bhaker, Heena Sidhu, Esha Singh, Yashaswini Deswal and Shweta Singh among others. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Some of the best shooters of the country are scheduled to compete in the 12th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters shooting championship to be staged at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, from July 28 to August 2.

All the shooters who have won the Olympic quota place for Tokyo 2020 - Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Manu Bhaker - are scheduled to compete in the Championship which is on the basis of invitation only, to the top-15
shooters of the last National championship held in Thiruvananthapuram.

Interestingly, if there is a tie for the 15th place, all the shooters with the identical score would be eligible to compete.

Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, who has also secured the Olympic quota, was missing from the 25-metre women’s sports pistol list, possibly because she may have a different training programme with her coach Munkhbayar Dorjsuren of Germany.

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The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) had originally included the mixed air pistol and air rifle events for the juniors and youth shooters, but now, has sent a circular stating that only mixed events for men and women would be conducted.

The women’s 3-position event has a battery of good shooters in Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant, Gaayathri Nithyanadam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Lajja Gauswami and Anjali Bhagwat.

Equally lively will be the women’s air pistol which has Manu Bhaker, Heena Sidhu, Esha Singh, Yashaswini Deswal and Shweta Singh among others.

The men’s rapid fire pistol will have Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar, Olympian Gurpreet Singh, Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh and Arpit Goel.

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Apart from the Olympic events in rifle and pistol, the competition will also feature standard pistol, centre fire pistol, rifle prone and free pistol events.

The scores from the championship will be considered for selections for the international events.

The NRAI has streamlined its entry system and accepts only online entries for the championship, with appropriate entry fee.

The last date of submitting entries with triple entry fee is July 15.