The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has announced a 17-member shooting team for the Olympic test event to be held in Tokyo, from April 16 to 25.
The event is basically meant for the Olympic qualified shooters with rare exceptions, in terms of numbers.
Tejaswini Sawant who won the Olympic quota in the women 50m rifle three positions, has been kept out and she will be replaced by Anjum Moudgil in that event.
The two spots in the women 10m air rifle have been filled in by quota winner Apurvi Chandela and World No. 1 Elavenil Valarivan.
Initially it was Anjum who had won the first quota in air rifle with a silver medal at the ISSF World Championship in 2018, but with some brilliant performances by Elavenil who ended the year as the World No. 1, which is why Anjum name was replaced by Elavenil.
India has not won any Olympic quota in men 25m rapid fire pistol, but will field Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh in the test event.
Indian squad for Olympic test event:
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan.
Women’s 10m Air Pistol: Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Singh Deswal.
Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions: Anjum Moudgil.
Women’s 25m Pistol: Rahi Sarnobat, Chinki Yadav.
Men’s 10m Air Rifle: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Deepak Kumar.
Men’s 10m Air Pistol: Abhishek Verma, Saurabh Chaudhary.
Men’s 50m Rifle Three Position: Sanjeev Rajput, Ashwary Pratap Singh.
Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol: Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh.
Men’s Skeet: Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa.
Mixed 10m Air Pistol: Abhishek Verma & Manu Bhaker; Saurabh Chaudhary &
Yashaswini Singh Deswal.
Mixed 10m Air Rifle: Divyansh Singh Panwar & Apurvi Chandela; Deepak Kumar
& Elavenil Valarivan.