A strong team of 43 shooters will attempt to assert India’s domination in the zone in the Commonwealth Shooting Championship to be staged in Brisbane, Australia, from October 31 to November 6.
Host Australia will only have a team of 39 for the championship that will feature rifle, pistol and shotgun events.
Britain will have 48 shooters and New Zealand 32, in what is generally perceived as the battle ground for the leading teams, even though there will be 220 shooters in all from 14 countries. The competition will open with women’s air pistol, men’s air rifle and the skeet events for men and women on Tuesday.
India will open its campaign through Heena Sidhu, Harveen Srao and P. Shri Nivetha in women’s air pistol. Gagan Narang returns to the squad for men’s air rifle and his presence may help Deepak Kumar and Ravi Kumar, who have done well this season, to be at their best.
In men’s skeet, India will have Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Sheeraz Sheikh. The women’s skeet team will be Maheshwari Chauhan, Rashmmi Rathore and Saniya Sheikh.
After the season’s best shooters went through the grind of the World Cup Final at home against the best in the business, winning a gold, silver and a bronze, for the best ever collection, there will be a lot of medals for India, which may give a hint of what to expect in the Commonwealth Games to be held in Gold Coast early next year.
With the pairs events having been removed, and no non-Olympic events like standard pistol or centre fire pistol, India may not match the number of medals won in the past editions, but in terms of quality, the team is surely well equipped to deliver.
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