Rifle and pistol mixed team events to begin show in Ningbo

Ningbo (China), Sep 8 (PTI) India's mixed team rifle and pistol shooters will be in action when the country's shooting contingent begins its campaign in the ISSF World Cup here from Tuesday.

Both the rifle and pistol mixed team events are lined up on the first day of the tournament at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Centre.

India have named a 24-member team comprising shooters ranked primarily between four-six in the national rankings for the year's final World Cup stage.

Former junior world champion and Olympian Ramita Jindal will pair up with junior world championship medallist Umamahesh Maddineni, while ex-world No 1 Divyansh Singh Panwar will team up with Meghana M Sajjanar in the air rifle mixed team event.

Arjun Babuta and Arya Borse won gold in the event in the previous Munich World Cup.

In the air pistol mixed team competition, Olympian Rhythm Sangwan will pair up with Nishant Rawat, while Amit Sharma will join Surbhi Rao.

India had won a gold in Lima and a bronze in Buenos Aries World Cup in this event through the pair of Suruchi Singh and Saurabh Chaudhary.

The new-look Indian rifle pairs will be up against some of the in-form shooters of the world including world No 1 and double Olympic gold medallist Sheng Lihao and the 16-year-old Peng Xinlu, who recently won silver at the Asian Shooting Championship in both the individual and mixed team events.

Xinlu's partner at the Asian Championships, Lu Dingke along with Liyuan Zhang, will be the second Chinese pair in action.

Norway's 50m 3P world No 1, Jeanette Hegg Duestad and Jon-Hermann Hegg who won gold in Lima, will also be strong favourites.

The other prominent pairs in action will include world No 2 Eunji Kwon and Paris Olympics silver medallist Hajun Park, Yuna Kwon and Junhwan Lee of Korea, neutral athletes Ilia Marsov and Mariia Vasileva, Jiri Privratsky and Katerina Stefankova of Czech Republic and Olympic champion Chiara Leone and Jan Lochbihler of Switzerland.

A total of 37 pairs have entered the fray with the top four qualifying for medal matches.

In the mixed team pistol event, the Indian pairs will face the toughest competition against the Chinese pair consisting of world No 1 Hu Kai and world No 2 Yao Qianxun, who have medalled in all three previous World Cups this year.

The second Chinese pair includes Ma Qianke and Zhang Yifan.

The other prominent pairs include Korea's Jiin Yang and Suhyeon Hong, Camille Jedrzejewski and Tom Richard Stepanoff of France, Hungarians Veronika Major and Karoly Akos Nagy and Paris Olympics' silver medallist Nilo Federico Maldini and Vittoria Toffalini of Italy.

The competition will see 31 pairs fight for four spots in medal matches. PTI AH DDV