India eye medals at ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship day one

India will contest four gold medals on day one of the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship in Cairo, led by Rudrankksh Patil and Arjun Babuta. Women’s air rifle trio and men’s 50m pistol shooters aim to add to India’s medal tally

Hyderabad: As many as four gold medals, divided equally among Olympic and non-Olympic events, will be decided on competition day one of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday, with 15 Indians in action across the five events.

The women’s and men’s 10m air rifle finals will no doubt be the showstoppers as they are popular Olympic events, with the non-Olympic 50m pistol event also giving out two gold medals on day one.

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The two 10m air rifle finals for men and women are set to be the highlights of the opening day. For India, Rudrankksh Patil, currently the 10th best in the world, will return to the venue of his biggest achievement, having been crowned world champion in Cairo in 2022. The women’s final is scheduled to start at 5 PM IST, while the men’s final will start at 9 PM IST.

Arjun Babuta, fourth in the Paris Olympics, will also be by his side and has performed well in Cairo, while rookie Vishal Singh will complete the trio.

Both Rudrankksh and Arjun have been in medal-winning international form this year, with the former picking up an individual gold at the Buenos Aires World Cup and the latter winning silver in Lima, besides winning multiple mixed team medals at continental and world levels.

The task will be equally challenging for India’s air rifle women’s trio comprising two-time Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, Meghana Sajjanar and Shreya Agrawal, in an even larger 121-strong world championship qualification field.

In the other medal events of the day, Kamaljeet, Ravinder Singh and Yogesh Kumar line up for India in the men’s 50m pistol, while in the corresponding women’s event Parisha, Priyanka Patel and Sakshi Suryavanshi will aim for gold.

The day will also see Olympian Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh and Sameer, yet another rookie at this level, navigate through the first qualification round of the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) event.