New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) The first medals of the ISSF Junior World Cup New Delhi 2025 will be decided on Thursday, with the 50m Rifle Prone event for both men and women set to start proceedings at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, here in India’s national capital.

The Olympic events will start on Friday (September 26), with the 10m Air pistol finals scheduled. A total of 208 shooters from 18 countries will be participating in 18 events, 15 Olympic and three Non-Olympic events, with a total of 54 medals to be earned.

India will field 10 athletes, five each in both the junior men’s and women’s categories, for the 50m Rifle Prone event, a non-Olympic event which has 21 athletes in the fray for the medals.

The Indian challenge will be spearheaded by Asian Championship bronze medallist Vedant Nitin Waghmare and 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) gold medallist in Shymkent, Anushka H. Thokur.

The other athletes in the men’s section are Rohit Kanyan, Kushagra Singh Rajawat, Deependra Singh Shekhawat, and Kunal Sharma, while Nimrat Kaur Brar, Saniya Sapale, Aadhya Agrawal, and Anshika will be in action in the women’s category.

The host nation, India, will lead the field with a strong contingent of 69 athletes, while other participating nations include the United States of America (20), Italy (10), Czechia (9), Islamic Republic of Iran (8), Croatia (7), Great Britain (6), United Arab Emirates (5), Slovakia (5), Qatar (4), Oman (4), Spain (8), Finland (3), Netherlands (3), Cyprus (3), New Zealand (2), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2), along with 40 Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

This will be the second and final World Cup for Juniors this year, following the first event hosted in Suhl, Germany, earlier this year in May, where India finished on top of the medals table with 11 medals, including 3 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze.

–IANS

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