Baku World Cup: Focus on Sarabjot as Air Pistol shooters take first shots at targets

New Delhi, May 9 Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal and Varun Tomar will lead the Indian challenge in the men's event as two gold medals, one each in the men's and women's 10m air pistol events, will be contested on the opening day of competitions at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday.

A 22-member Indian squad has its full quota of three medal contenders in each event who will look to impress ahead of what will be the squad's last international assignment before the crucial world championships in August.

While Sarabjot Singh, Shiva Narwal and Varun Tomar lead India's challenge in the men's event, Divya T.S, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan will vie for podium places in the women's competition.

The squad reached Baku in two batches by Monday and has been training at the competition range over the past couple of days under the watchful eyes of high-performance director (HPD) Dr. Pierre Beauchamp and foreign coaches Thomas Farnik and Munkhbayar Dorjsuren.

Speaking ahead of the year's fourth Rifle/Pistol world cup stage, team HPD Dr. Beauchamp said, "It is yet another step in the journey. An opportunity to sharpen up, fine-tune, and improve our process goals. That is how I see this World Cup. Medals are always a result of a good process!"

As is the norm with ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup stages these days, there will be a total of 10 medal events equally spread over the next five days, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) informed in a release on Tuesday.

Close to 600 shooters from 50 countries, including top names like Christian Reitz, Javad Faroughi, Damir Mikec, Anna Korakaki, Doreen Vennekamp, Yang Qian, Veronika Major, Jean Quiquampoix and others are expected to test their competitive skills ahead of the world championships in three month's-time, where a host of Paris 2024 Olympics quota places are to be won.