Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh headline India's shooting squad for Asian Games, World Championships

Reigning World Champion Rudrankksh Patil has not been picked for the World Championships.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the governing body of the Olympic sport of Shooting in India, has announced the Indian Rifle and Pistol squad for the upcoming World Championships in August in Baku, Azerbaijan and the Hangzhou Asian Games in China the month after. The Shotgun squad had been announced earlier.

A 22-member Rifle and Pistol squad will travel to Baku to vie for as many as 32 Paris Olympic quota places up for grabs there while a 21-member squad will make the trip to Hangzhou.

Reigning Men’s 10m Air Rifle World Champion Rudrankksh Patil has been included in the Asian Games squad basis the selection criteria for Paris quota winners. He, however, has not been selected for the World Championships. Ashi Chouksey also replaced Tilottama Sen in the Women’s Air Rifle squad in Hangzhou.

She will be shooting both the Women’s Rifle events, given none of the top three Women’s Air Rifle shooters shot the three positions (3P) event and the Asian Games allows for only five entries each in Men’s and Women’s Rifle events. Ashi got the nod as the highest ranked Air Rifle shooter in the Women’s 3P squad.

The rest of the selection followed the rankings post the National Selection Trials 5 & 6 for Group A Rifle and Pistol shooters which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range on Friday.

India squad for Asian Games

Individual Events

Air Rifle Men – Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh, and Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil

Air Rifle Women – Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ashi Chouksey

50m Rifle 3P Men – Aishwary Pratap Singh, Swapnil Suresh Kusale, and Akhil Sheoran

50m Rifle 3P Women – Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, and Manini Kaushik

Air Pistol Men – Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal, and Arjun Singh

Air Pistol Women – TS Divya, Esha Singh, and Palak

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men – Anish, Vijayveer Sidhu, and Adarsh Singh

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Women – Rhythm Sangwan, Manu Bhaker, and Esha Singh

Mixed Team Events

Air Rifle Mixed Team – Divyansh Singh Panwar/Ramita and Aishwary Pratap Sing/Mehuli Ghosh

Air Pistol Mixed Team – Sarabjot Sing/TS Divya and Shiva Narwal/Esha Singh

Indian squad for World Championships

Air Rifle Men: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Hriday Hazarika

Air Rifle Women: Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh, Tilottama Sen

50m Rifle 3P Men: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran, Niraj Kumar

50m Rifle 3P Women: Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, Manini Kaushik

Air Pistol Men: Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal, Arjun Singh Cheema

Air Pistol Women: Divya TS, Esha Singh, Palak

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men: Anish, Vijayveer Sidhu, Adarsh Singh

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Women: Rhythm Sangwan, Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh

Air Rifle mixed team: Divyansh Singh Panwar/Ramita; Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar/Mehuli Ghosh

Air Pistol mixed team: Sarabjot Singh/Divya TS; Shiva Narwal/Esha Singh