Nine champions from last year's Rio Olympics would feature in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun to be held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range here from Monday.
The ISSF World Cup Final (WCF) is organized every year as a conclusion of the ISSF World Cup Series and this will be the first time that India will host the annual showpiece of the international shooting sport calendar.
They will all vie for the coveted Crystal Globes, along with the year's top eight World Cup series performers and World Championship medalists, to grab bragging rights as the best shooter of the year.
Speaking on the occasion, Raninder Singh, President, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), said, "It is a great honour for the country and the NRAI, to be hosting the best in the sport of Shooting in such a top class competition. We hope fans enjoy seeing their local stars compete with the very best in the world in flesh and blood."
Hosts India have a total of 10 competitors across the three disciplines including current World number one Double Trap Shooter Ankur Mittal and reigning Asian Games champion and former world number one Men's Pistol ace Jitu Rai. Heena Sidhu, a former 2013 ISSF WCF winner in the Women's 10M Air Pistol will be gunning for an encore, this time in the Mixed Team Air Pistol event, partnering Jitu. Ravi Kumar and Pooja Ghatkar have also qualified in the top draw Men's and Women's 10M Air Rifle event respectively.
Three World Cup series events have concluded earlier in the year for each discipline along with the ISSF World Championship for Shotgun held in Moscow last month.
A total of 162 athletes from 45 ISSF member federations will be competing at the ISSF WCF New Delhi 2017. There will be a total of 18 finals across six competition days beginning Tuesday, October 24 and concluding on Sunday, October 29.
For the first time in an ISSF WCF, apart from the 15 Rio Olympic disciplines, three Mixed Team medal events are also going to be held. They will be the Mixed Team 10M Air Rifle, the Mixed Team 10M Air Pistol and the Mixed Team Trap event.
China with 26 competitors, are by far the largest squad. Among their top Shooters in fray will be Mengxue Zhang, the Rio Women's 25M Pistol champion and Zhang Binbin, last year's champion in the Women's Rifle 3 Positions event. Italy, Germany and USA also have strong squads.
The ISSF WCF determines the year's best shooter in each Olympic shooting event.