Cairo [Egypt], April 20 (ANI): The junior shooters will be in action for the first time this season with two medals to be decided in the 10m Air Rifle Women and 10m Air Pistol Men events as Day one of competitions commences in the ISSF Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun here at the Egypt International Olympic City.

According to a release, India has a strong contingent of 71 athletes, with the first batch of 58 athletes, along with the support staff, arriving in Cairo yesterday.

Day one of the competition will start with the 25m Pistol Precision stage for both men and women, along with 75 targets for skeet men and women.

The qualification stage will start at 12:30 IST (9 AM local time). This will be followed by the qualification round of 10m Air Rifle Women, the first medal event of the day at 12:45 IST (9:15 AM local time), followed by the final at 15:30 IST (12 Noon local time).

The second medal event of the day, 10m Air Pistol Men, will begin at 15:00 IST (11:30 AM local time) with the final scheduled for 17:45 IST (2:15 local time).

India has fielded six athletes in the 10m Air Rifle Women event, headlined by Asian Junior record holder and 2025 ISSF World Cup Suhl champion Shambhavi Kshirsagar.

She will be joined by 2025 Asian Champion in 50m Rifle 3Positions Anushka Thokur, silver and bronze medal winners in 2026 Asian Championships, New Delhi, Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma, 2024 Asian Championships bronze medallist Anvii Rathod and Panaah Bhugra.

The 10m Air Pistol Men's event will also feature six athletes from India taking the field, which will be led by former Junior World Champion and 2023 World Championship gold medallist in the mixed event, Shiva Narwal, who will be competing in an international event after a gap of three years. Deaflympics 2025 champion Abhinav Deshwal, Abhinav Choudhary, Abhay Dhama, Himanshu Rana and 17-year-old Chirag Sharma are the other athletes in the lineup.

A maximum of three athletes, per country, the three top-ranked after the qualification round, will proceed to the final.

Former World Championship and Junior World Championship medallist Sameer Gulia is the most well-known name in India's 25m Pistol squad. In the men's category, Abhinav Choudhary, Sahil Choudhary, Sagnik Banerjee, Pranshu Suryavanshi and Bhanu Pratap Singh Shekhawat will be contesting for medals, while Parisha Gupta, Anjali Mahendra Bhagwat, Agam Kaur Grewal, Manvi Jain, Sejal Kamble and Shikha Chaudhary will be participating in the women's event.

In the Skeet event, India will have five athletes in the men's category and four in the women's category. Zoarawar Singh Bedi, Harviraj Singh, Ishaan Singh Libra, Yashvardhan Singh Rajawat and Anjaneya Singh Mandawa in men's and Risham Kaur Guron, Parmeet Kaur, Agrima Kanwar and Sanyogita Shekhawat in women's will be taking the field tomorrow for India.

In all, 284 athletes from 25 countries will compete in Cairo, with India fielding the largest contingent. Hosts Egypt have fielded a 29-member squad, whereas Russia, competing under the Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) banner, has also entered a large 43-member squad. Other top shooting nations that have entered sizeable squads are France (24), Great Britain (16) and Italy (13).

With Junior World Championships slated for June in Suhl, Germany, this will be a good opportunity for Indian juniors to stake their claim for that blue riband event. (ANI)