Junior shooting World Cup to feature 208 athletes from 18 nations

New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) Hosts India will field a strong contingent of 69 athletes at the ISSF Junior World Cup which will bring together 208 young shooters from 18 countries at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Scheduled to be held from September 24 to October 2, the event will showcase the next generation of shooting talent competing across 15 Olympic events and two non-Olympic events, with a total of 51 medals at stake.

Other participating nations include the United States of America (20), Italy (10), Czechia (9), Islamic Republic of Iran (8), Croatia (7), Great Britain (6), United Arab Emirates (5), Slovakia (5), Qatar (4), Oman (4), Spain (8), Finland (3), Netherlands (3), Cyprus (3), New Zealand (2), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2), along with 40 Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

The athletes from the United States, Great Britain, Italy and Cyprus have arrived at the range and conducted an unofficial training session.

This will be the second and final World Cup for Juniors this year, following the first event hosted in Suhl, Germany, earlier this year in May where India finished on top of the medals table with 11 medals, including 3 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze.

Among the notable names to watch will be Olympia and Suhl silver medalist Raiza Dhillon, former world champion Abhinav Shaw, Suhl gold medallists Shambhavi Kshirsagar and Tejaswani, and bronze medallist from the same World Cup, Naraen Pranav and Adriyan Karmakar, among others.

World Championship medallist Arianna Nimber from Italy, along with her countrymen Marco Coco, Matteo Bragalli, and Luca Gerri will be in action at the shotgun range, along with Trap shooter from Croatia, Toni Gudelj, who won the bronze medal at Suhl. PTI AT DDV