The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), on Tuesday 30 January 2018, announced a full quota 27 members (15 Men, 12 Women) team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2018 to be held in Gold Coast, Australia from 4th to 15th April this year.
Recently the organizers of the Commonwealth Games had cut the quota of participants for all countries, and thus Indian shooting got a reduced quota of 27 from an earlier allocated of 30.
The team is comprising experienced shooters like Olympic Medalist Gagan Narang, Former World No 1 Heena Sidhu, Ankur Mittal, and Jitu Rai, etc, while Juniors like Mehuli Ghosh who won 8 gold medals at National Shooting Championship in last month and Anish who had won 5 medals at ISSF Junior World Championship 2017 got their places in the squad.
The selection committee in its meeting held on 29th January 2018 has selected the teams for participation in the various International Competitions and National Squad 2018.
The team for Commonwealth Games is a follows:
MEN
50M RIFLE 3 POSITION
1. Sanjeev Rajput
2. Chain Singh
50M RIFLE PRONE
1. Chain Singh
2. Gagan Narang
10M AIR RIFLE
1. Ravi Kumar
2. Deepak Kumar
25M RAPID FIRE PISTOL
1. Anish
2. Neeraj Kumar
50M FREE PISTOL
1. Jitu Rai
2. Om Prakash Mitharwal
10M AIR PISTOL
1. Jitu Rai
2. Om Prakash Mitharwal
TRAP
1. Manavjit Singh Sandhu
2. Kynan Chenai
DOUBLE TRAP
1. Mohd Asab
2. Ankur Mittal
SKEET
1. Smith Singh
2. Sheeraz Sheikh
WOMEN
50M RIFLE 3 POSITION
1. Anjum Moudgil
2. Tejaswini Sawant
50M RIFLE PRONE
1. Anjum Moudgil
2. Tejaswini Sawant
10M AIR RIFLE
1. Apurvi Chandela
2. Mehuli Ghosh
25M SPORTS PISTOL
1. Heena Sidhu
2. Annuraj Singh
10M AIR PISTOL
1. Heena Sidhu
2. Manu Bhaker
TRAP
1. Shreyasi Singh
2. Seema Tomar
DOUBLE TRAP
1. Shreyasi Singh
2. Varsha Varman
SKEET
1. Saniya Sheikh
2. Maheshwari Chauhan
The Shooting events will start from 8th to 14th April at Belmont Shooting Centre. Shooting has always been India’s most important sport (with regards to medals) at Commonwealth Games as India is at 2nd place behind Australia in the overall medal tally with 118 medals (56 Gold) in Shooting. The sport has always helped India to finish in the top 5 of the medal table. Reducing the quota places will also affect India’s position at the medal table.
Shooting will also not feature at 2022 edition as the officials have suggested inclusion of Mixed Cricket in the quota place.