Manu, Divyansh, Aishwary among shooters picked for Worlds, Asian Games

Olympians Manu Bhaker, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar were among the shooters named in the Indian squads for the upcoming ISSF World Championships and Asian Games.

The 2018 Asian Games gold medallist and former Youth Olympic champion Saurabh Chaudhary missed out of the teams for the two big tournaments, which were announced here on Saturday.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the governing body of the sport in the country, announced the Indian rifle and pistol squad for the upcoming World Championships in August in Baku, Azerbaijan and the Hangzhou Asian Games in China in September.

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The shotgun squad had been announced earlier.

A 22-member rifle and pistol squad will travel to Baku to vie for as many as 32 Paris Olympic quota places up for grabs there while a 21-member team will make the trip to Hangzhou.

Reigning men’s 10m air rifle world champion Rudrankksh Patil has been included in the Asian Games squad on the basis of the selection criteria for Paris quota winners.

Ashi Chouksey replaced Tilottama Sen in the women’s air rifle squad in Hangzhou. She will be shooting both the women's rifle events, given none of the top three women’s air rifle shooters shot the three positions (3P) event and the Asian Games allows for only five entries each in men’s and women’s rifle events.

Ashi got the nod as the highest ranked air rifle shooter in the women's 3P squad.

The rest of the selection followed the rankings post the national selection trials 5 and 6 for Group A rifle and pistol shooters which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Friday.

Chaudhary, who was looking to make a comeback to the Indian squad after a long lay-off, was part of the trails but could not make the cut.