Saurabh Chaudhary among 24 Indian shooters shortlisted for Cairo World Cup

Olympian and Asian Games champion in men's 10-meter air pistol, Saurabh Chaudhary, is among 24 shooters selected for the national shooting camp in preparation for next month’s ISSF World Cup in rifle and pistol in Egypt.

According to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the selected shooters will attend a national camp from February 9 at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. The World Cup in Egypt, scheduled to be held in Cairo from February 28 to March 8, will be the season’s first international competition for the Indian team. The national shooting team will compete in individual, mixed and team events in Egypt.

Due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in India, the national selection trials scheduled in January were postponed. The selection committee of the NRAI decided to consider the qualification scores along with final ranking points of the 64th National Shooting Championship Competition (NSCC), to select the shooters for Cairo World Cup.

Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve and Pradhyumn Singh are the other two shooters shortlisted in the men’s 10m air pistol event.

In the 25m rapid pistol, Anish Bhanwala, Bhavesh Shekhawat and Gurpreet Singh will represent India at the Egypt World Cup.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and seasoned rifle shooter Sanjeev Rajput were among four selected in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions. Akhil Sheoran and Kiran Ankush Jadhav are the other two shooters in the group.

Air rifle shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar, R Balasaheb Patil and Srijoy Datta were among the 24 shooters selected. Shreya Agarwal, Aayush Gupta, and Rajshree Sancheti have been selected in the women’s 10m air rifle event.

Teenage pistol shooter Esha Singh, Rahi Sarnobat and Rhythm Sangwan have been selected in women’s 25m pistol. Esha will also compete in women’s 10m air pistol. P Shri Nivetha and Ruchita Vinerkar are the other two shooters in the group.

Six coaches and two physios will also be accompanying the team. Meanwhile, the NRAI is in the process of appointing a new panel of coaches for the national camp. January 30 is the deadline to submit an application for the post of head coach and assistant coaches.