The Thai capital of Bangkok will play host to its maiden International Shooting Sports Federation(ISSF) World Cup, starting Thursday with some of the biggest names in the sport stepping foot in the city for the first major event of the year.
Three categories will kickstart the event on Thursday. The 10m Air Rifle Men’s event will see Abhinav Bindra compete in his first competition of the year, after not competing in the Asian Shooting qualifier as well as the South Asian Games.
The 33-year-old, who booked his quota for Rio 2016 at the Munich World Cup in May last year, has been competing in a few tournaments in Germany and was awarded the federation’s highest honour in January. He will look to clinch his first ever World Cup medal when he takes to the range on Thursday.
Giving him company will be Chain Singh, who had a superb time at the South Asian Games, winning Gold in both the 10m Air Rifle as well the 50m 3 position event, finishing ahead of Gagan Narang, who will also be a part of the action on Thursday.
India will have no representation in the 25m Centre Fire Pistol event but will have a strong team representing in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event.
Fresh from winning the quota for Rio 2016, Ayonika Paul will look to put in a strong performance in Bangkok while Pooja Ghatkar, who was a bit unfortunate to miss out on a quota along with Elizabeth Koshy, who also missed the quota for Rio by a whisker.
But India’s biggest hope of a medal in this category will once again be Apurvi Chandela, who after a sensational 2015 has begun 2016 in blazing fashion as well, winning 2 Golds at the Swedish Championships before winning the Gold at the South Asian Games.
