Nicosia [Cyrus], May 2 : The Indian Skeet shooting squad has arrived in Cyprus, for the year's third International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun stage, set to begin in the capital city of Nicosia from Saturday.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) had named a 12-member squad for the Nicosia World Cup back in February itself, including for both disciplines of Skeet and Trap. Skeet competitions, which will continue for three days, begin first from Monday, where two Olympians, Mairaj Ahmad Khan in men's skeet and Maheshwari Chauhan in women's skeet, will lead an otherwise young and inexperienced side at this top international level.
A total of 350 plus athletes from as many as 54 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have entered the competition, including some of the top names in Shotgun Shooting.
All Finals will be broadcast live on the official ISSF YouTube Channel
The qualifying round of the Skeet competitions begin Monday with two rounds of 25 clay targets each which will be repeated on Tuesday, before the fifth and final round and the finals are played out on Wednesday.
India's hopes in men's skeet will rest upon Abhay Singh Sekhon, who will be making his senior world cup debut and Rituraj Singh Bundela, who has played four world cups in the past two years, besides Mairaj. In the women's competition, Maheshwari will also be looking to secure a first senior world cup medal alongside Parinaaz Dhaliwal who is four world cups old. The third Indian in women's skeet, the 18-year-old Yashasvi Rathore, will be making her debut.
Many former and reigning World and Olympic champions will be lining up for international glory, including strong teams from powerhouses Italy and the USA.
In Delhi on Thursday, men's 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) final was won by the Railways' Akhil Sheoran, a reigning world championship bronze medalist. He shot 462.5 to win the final even as West Bengal's Adriyan Karmakar picked up the junior men's 3P title.
Riya Shirish Thatte of Maharashtra was among the other stars on Thursday's first day of finals, finishing second behind Divya with 28 hits in the senior final and finishing fourth in the junior final.
Just like Riya in Bhopal, Rohit Kanyan of Haryana was the limelight snatcher in Delhi, taking silver in the men's 3P, while also reaching the junior final to finish sixth.
Paris Olympic bronze medalist Swapnil Kusale had a mixed day, winning gold for Railways in the men's 3P team event, while also equaling his own Championship qualification record of 589, to top the qualifications. He then finished fifth in the men's 3P final.