New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Two finals in the men’s 10m Air Pistol and 10m Air Rifle events are scheduled on the opening day of competitions at the Munich leg of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol on Tuesday.

Traditionally billed as a blue-riband annual event in the sport, the OlympiaschieBanlage in the German capital will see the participation of 696 athletes from 80 countries, including a galaxy of Olympic and world champions.

The 22-member Indian squad has a healthy mix of experience and youth and will be up against the royalty of rifle and pistol shooting. The squad includes four debutants in the senior level, Suraj Sharma, Sakshi Padekar, Ajendra Singh Chauhan and Udhayveer Sidhu, who is making his debut in a senior World Cup in an Olympic event. Apart from the 22-member squad, 13 athletes will also be competing in Munich for ranking points.

World Champion Samrat Rana will lead the Indian challenge in the 10m Air Pistol event along with Sharvan Kumar and debutant Ajendra Singh Chauhan. The trio will be up against some of the best pistol shooters in the world, starting with China’s Hu Kai who clinched the gold medal in all four World Cups last year and the World Cup final title along with a silver behind Samrat in the World Championships.

The other challengers in the event include 19-year-old Bu Shuaihang of China, who won gold in Granada last month, German pistol legend Christian Reitz, Paris Olympics medallists Federico Nilo Maldini and Paolo Monna of Italy, Paris Olympic medallist Yusuf Dikec of Turkey and 2016 Olympics silver medallist Felipe Almeida Wu of Brazil among others. A total number of 153 athletes will be taking part in the event.

Samrat has been in decent form this season, winning bronze in the Asian Championships in New Delhi, the only major competition he has taken part in this season. Sharvan, who will be part of a World Cup after a gap of three years, will look to better his fourth-placed finish in the Asian Championships, while Ajendra will aim for a good showing in his debut World Cup.

16-year-old Jonathan Gavin Antony and Harsh Swami will be competing for ranking points

In the 10m Air Rifle Men the Indian challenge will be spearheaded by Olympian Arjun Babuta, who started the season with a gold at the Asian Championships. He will be joined by former Junior World champion Parth Rakesh Mane and Shahu Tushar Mane. Rudrankksh Patil and Himanshu Dhillon will be competing for ranking points.

They will be taking a field consisting of some of the biggest names of rifle shooting ever lead by perennial winner Sheng Lihao of China and World Champion Maximilian Dallinger of Germany. Other big names who will be taking the field include Ma Sihan of China, Istavan Peni Marton of Hungary, finals world record holder Danilo Dennis Sollazzo of Italy, Jiri Privratsky of Czechia, Islam Satpayev of Kazakhstan, Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway, Victor Lindgren of Sweden and veterans Petar Gorsa of Croatia and Serhii Kulish of Ukraine.

The 10m Air Pistol qualification will start at 12:30 IST (9 AM local time) with the finals scheduled for 17:30 IST (2 PM local time).

The Air rifle qualification will begin on 17:00 IST (1:30 PM local time) and the finals is scheduled for 22:00 IST (6:30 PM local time).

The 25m Pistol women precision stage and the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women elimination are also scheduled for Tuesday.

–IANS

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