Indian shooters, officials depart for global competition

A team of 10 shooters and four officials departed for Guadalajara, Mexico, to take part in the year's first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup stage Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, ahead of a long and important season for the National Shooting squad.

The competition is scheduled between March 1-12, with a total of 15 medal events and three mixed team events.

Among the shooters to leave were Trap shooting exponents Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Shreyasi Singh, Shagun Chowdhary and Seema Tomar as well as Rifle and Pistol shooters Annu Raj Singh, Tejaswini Sawant, Anjum Moudgil and N. Gaayathri.

The second batch of the 33-strong squad is scheduled to leave on Tuesday, while the final batch is scheduled to depart on March 3.

"It's a big season for the National squad and I wish all team members the very best, especially to the youngsters in the squad, many of whom will be donning the senior India colors for the very first time. We have a strong and balanced squad and I expect good results to continue to come out of shooting for India internationally," said Raninder Singh, President, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

The National shooting squad has two important multi-sport, multi-country events with the Commonwealth Games scheduled for April and the Asian Games in August.

The ISSF World Championships, which will be the first quota event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is also scheduled for August, besides the rest of the ISSF World Cup stages and continental championships.