41-member Indian team announced for Asian Shooting Championship

A 41-member strong Indian shooting squad will look to secure the maximum possible Olympic quotas in the 14th Asian Championship, which begins in Doha on November 3.

Thirty-eight Olympic quota places will be up for grabs in the continental tournament in the Qatari capital.

The selection committee of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which met in the capital on Wednesday, announced the team consisting of shooters across the 15 Olympic events, including six entries only for the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section.

A notable selection was the fielding of seasoned rifle shooter Sanjeev Rajput in the MQS section of the men’s 10m Air Rifle event.

This was done to ensure that in a situation the second quota in the event is not earned, Sanjeev can be kept for the event for Tokyo.

Divyansh Panwar has earned one quota for India in the 10m Air rifle out of a maximum possible two till now.

There are also some new faces who will be seen for the first time in senior India colours in the Olympic events.

Among them, Shravan Kumar (in men’s 10m Air Pistol) will join the duo of Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary.

Also, in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, where there are four quotas to be won in Doha, Bhavesh Shekhawat will partner the likes of Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh.

Neeraj Kaur, in women’s 25m Pistol, will also be seen for the first time for India in an international event.

The teams across junior and youth categories as well as non-olympic categories were also announced.