Ace pistol shooter Manu Bhaker will lead a 35-member Indian team in the season-opening International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cups in April in South America with almost all the shooters who featured in the Paris Olympics making the cut.
A notable member of the team is air pistol ace Saurabh Chaudhary, who returns to the national side after more than three years. Saurabh, who battled a shoulder injury and poor form following the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, recently shot a national record score in 10m air pistol qualification besides impressing in the trials.
He had paired with Manu in the 10m air pistol mixed team event in Tokyo.
The international shooting season will begin with a double-leg South American sojourn, with the first World Cup (rifle or pistol or shotgun) scheduled in Buenos Aires, Argentina from April 1-11, which will be followed by a second combined World Cup in Lima, Peru from April 13-22. Manu, who was recently warded the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award for her two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics in 10m women's air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh, will compete in the South American competitions in two individual events - women's air pistol and 25m pistol. She will be accompanied by other Paris Olympians like Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu (men's 25m rapid-fire pistol), Esha Singh (women's 25m pistol), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (men's 50m rifle three positions), Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanka Sadangi (women's 50m rifle 3 positions), Arjun Babuta (men's 10m air rifle), Prithviraj Tondaiman (men's trap), Anant Jeet Singh Naruka (men's skeet) and Raiza Dhillon (women's skeet).
Ahead of the team's departure, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will organise a training camp at the Karni Singh Range here from March 14.
The biggest draw on the ISSF calendar this year will be the World Championships scheduled in October (shotgun) and November (rifle or pistol).
"There will be a total of three World Cup stages for each discipline while two junior World Cups, the second among them in New Delhi in September, are also scheduled. Also on the international roster this year is the 16th Asian Championships in Kazakhstan in August," said NRAI in a statement.
NRAI secretary-general Sultan Singh said it was time for the Indian shooters to raise the bar further following their success at the Paris Olympics, where the 21-member contingent bagged three bronze medals.
"A new responsibility rests on the entire shooting fraternity to raise the bar even higher. We are confident that those selected for the international season openers will come out with flying colours," said Singh.
NRAI recently announced a long list of coaches and experts to guide the Indian shooters on their journey to the 2028 LA Games with Manu's coach Jaspal Rana heading the chart.
Rana was brought back into the Indian shooting's mainstream with the NRAI making him the high-performance coach for 25m pistol, while picking the decorated Jitu Rai for the 10m air pistol coaching job.
Also appointed as head coach (rifle) was the latest Dronacharya award recipient Deepali Deshpande, who guided rifle shooter Swapnil Kusale to bronze in Paris.
