Indian shooters eye medals as ISSF World Cup begins in Ningbo

India’s 24-member shooting squad begins its ISSF World Cup campaign in Ningbo, with Ramita Jindal, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Rhythm Sangwan leading mixed team events against world-class opposition in rifle and pistol

Hyderabad: The Indian shooting team will begin the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Ningbo, China, with both the rifle and pistol mixed teams in action on Tuesday at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center.

India has named a 24-member squad comprising shooters ranked primarily between four and six in the national rankings for the final World Cup stage of the calendar year.

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Former Junior World Champion and Olympian Ramita Jindal will pair up with Junior World Championship medallist Umamahesh Maddineni, while former World No. 1 and Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar will team up with Meghana M Sajjanar in the Air Rifle Mixed Team event. Arjun Babuta and Arya Borse had won gold in this event at the previous Munich World Cup.

In the Air Pistol Mixed Team competition, Olympian Rhythm Sangwan will partner with Nishant Rawat, while Amit Sharma will join Surbhi Rao. India had earlier won gold in Lima and bronze in Buenos Aires in this event through the pair of Suruchi Singh and Saurabh Chaudhary.

The new-look Indian rifle pairs will face strong challenges from top shooters, including World No. 1 and double Olympic gold medallist Sheng Lihao and 16-year-old Peng Xinlu, who recently won silver at the Asian Shooting Championship in both the individual and mixed team events. Xinlu’s partner at the Asian Championships, Lu Dingke, along with Liyuan Zhang, will form the second Chinese pair. Norway’s 50m 3P World No. 1 Jeanette Hegg Duestad and Jon-Hermann Hegg, who won gold in Lima, will also be strong favourites.

Other prominent pairs include World No. 2 Eunji Kwon and Paris silver medallist Hajun Park, as well as Yuna Kwon and Junhwan Lee of Korea. Neutral athletes Ilia Marsov and Mariia Vasileva, Jiri Privratsky and Katerina Stefankova of the Czech Republic, and Olympic champion Chiara Leone with Jan Lochbihler of Switzerland will also compete. A total of 37 pairs have entered the fray, with the top four qualifying for the medal matches.

In the Mixed Team Pistol event, the Indian pairs will face tough competition against the Chinese duo of World No. 1 Hu Kai and World No. 2 Yao Qianxun, who have medalled in all three previous World Cups this year. The second Chinese pair will include Ma Qianke and Zhang Yifan. Other strong contenders are Korea’s Jiin Yang and Suhyeon Hong, Camille Jedrzejewski and Tom Richard Stepanoff of France, Hungary’s Veronika Major and Karoly Akos Nagy, and Paris silver medallist Nilo Federico Maldini with Vittoria Toffalini of Italy. The competition will feature 31 pairs, with the top four advancing to the medal matches.