By IANS
New Delhi : The selection committee of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) Monday announced a 12-member team for the Asian Clay Shooting Championship in Manila next month and a 66-member squad for the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait later this year.
Nine Indian shooters have already won Olympic berths of the 2008 Games in Beijing and more shooters will be eyeing the same at the Asian Shooting Championship in December.
In Kuwait, 28 Olympic berths will be up for grabs and India is expected to pocket a few in double trap, air rifle (women), sport rifle 3 position (women), air pistol (men and women) and rapid fire pistol events.
Jaspal Rana, who won three gold in the centre fire pistol and standard pistol events in the Doha Asian Games last December, was not selected because he didn’t participate in the trials, which ended here Sunday.
“Jaspal didn’t report for the trials and we didn’t select him. We also asked him if he would be available for his pet events, which are centre and rapid fire. But he made himself unavailable for these events and there was no question of his selection,” national coach Sunny Thomas told IANS.
The national coach added that Rana was keen to participate in rapid fire event (Olympic event), but didn’t appear for the trials. This spoiled his chances of qualifying for the Olympics.
The year-end Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait would be the last chance for the shooters in the region to win qualification berths for the Beijing Olympics.
In senior category, where the Olympic berths are available, 23 men and 14 women will take part in 18 events while in junior section, 20 men and nine women have been selected for 16 events.
India won 10 gold, four silver and bronze during the last edition held in the 2004 at Kuala Lumpur.
Teams:
Asian Shooting Championship:
Seniors:
Free rifle 3 position (men): Gagan Narang, Sanjeev Rajput, Imran Hasan Khan
Free rifle prone (men): Gagan Narang, Surendra Singh Rathore, Sanjeev Rajput
Air rifle (men): Gagan Narang, P.T. Raghunath, Abhinav Bindra
Free pistol (men): Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Mkar Singh
Rapid fire pistol (men): Vijay Kumar, Pemba Tamang, Harpeet Singh
Air pistol (men): Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Deepak Sharma
Centre fire pistol (men): Vijay Kumar, Samresh Jung, Pushpinder Singh
Standard pistol (men): Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Vijay Kumar
Trap (men): Manavjit Singh, Zorawar Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh
Double trap (men): Ronjon Sodhi, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vikram Chopra
Skeet (men): A.D. People, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Amit Sanghi
Sports rifle 3 positions (women): Tejaswini Sawant, Anjali Bhagwat, Raj Kumari
Sports rifle prone (men): Tejaswini Sawant, Raj Kumari, Meena
Air rifle (women): Suma Shirur, Priya Agarwal, Avneet Kaur Sidhu
Air Pistol (women): Shweta Chaudhary, Nausheen Fathima, Harveen Srao
Sports pistol (women): Annuraj Singh, Sushma Singh, Shweta Chaudhary
Trap (women): Shagun Chowdhary
Skeet (women): Arti Singh Rao
Juniors:
Free rifle 3 positions (men): Amit Kumar, Akash Kumar Ravidas, Lal Hriet Puia
Free rifle prone (men): Amit Kumar, Kundan Singh Sekhawat, Lal Hriet Puia
Air rifle (men): Verma Reddy Anish, Kanhaiya Babar, Bibaswan Ganguly
Free pistol (men): Zakir Khan, Amanpreet Singh, Kapil Tomar
Air pistol (men): Amanpreet Singh, Zakir Khan, Harit Babbar
Rapid fire pistol (men): Hambir Singh
Standard pistol (men): Amanpreet Singh, Hambir Singh, Zakir Khan
Sports pistol junior (men): Hambir Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Zakir Khan
Trap (men): Asher Noria, Prithvi Raj Tondaman, Arindam Shahi
Double trap (men): Mohammed Asab, Asher Noria, Ajay Mittal
Skeet (men): Man Singh, Sorab Singh, Sheeraj Sheikh
Sports rifle 3 position (women): N. Saini Devi, Lajja Goswami, Anu Tomar
Sports rifle prone (women): N. Saini Devi, Lajja Goswami, Anu Tomar
Air rifle (women): Anu Tomar, Navdeep Kuar Dhillon, Ayonika Paul
Air pistol (women): Ruby Tomar, Heena Sidhu, Vidhya Bandhu Jadhav
Skeet (women): Saniya Sheikh
Asian Clay Shooting Championship:
Trap (men): Manavjit Singh, Zorawar Singh Sandhu, Anwer Sultan
Double trap (men): Ronjon Sodhi, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vikram Chopra
Skeet (men): A.D. People, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Amit Sanghi
Trap (women): Shagun Chowdhary
Skeet (women): Arti Singh Rao, Saniya Sheikh