India's junior shooters are geared up to showcase their talent at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Cairo, aiming for medals and valuable experience ahead of the Junior World Championships.
India's junior shooters will be in action for the first time this season with two medals to be decided in the women's 10m air rifle event and men's 10m air pistol competition when the ISSF Junior World Cup commences here on Tuesday.
India is fielding a strong contingent of 71 athletes, with the first batch of 58 athletes along with the support staff arriving in Cairo on Sunday.
Day one of competition will start with 25m pistol precision stage for both men and women, along with 75 targets for skeet men and women.
India has fielded six athletes in the 10m air rifle women event, headlined by Asian Junior record holder and 2025 ISSF Suhl World Cup champion Shambhavi Kshirsagar. She will be joined by 2025 Asian champion in 50m rifle 3 positions Anushka Thokur, silver and bronze medal winners in 2026 New Delhi Asian Championships Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma, 2024 Asian Championships bronze medallist Anvii Rathod and Panaah Bhugra.
The men's 10m air pistol event will also have six athletes from India taking the field which will led by former Junior world champion and 2023 World Championship gold medallist in the mixed event, Shiva Narwal, who will be competing in an international event after a gap of three years..
Deaflympics 2025 champion Abhinav Deshwal, Abhinav Choudhary, Abhay Dhama, Himanshu Rana and 17-year-old Chirag Sharma are the other athletes in the lineup.
A maximum of three athletes per country, the three top ranked after qualification round, will proceed to the final.
Former World Championship and Junior World Championship medallist Sameer Gulia is the most known name in India's 25m pistol squad.
In the men's category Abhinav Choudhary, Sahil Choudhary, Sagnik Banerjee, Pranshu Suryavanshi and Bhanu Pratap Singh Shekhawat will be contesting for medals while Parisha Gupta, Anjali Mahendra Bhagwat, Agam Kaur Grewal, Manvi Jain, Sejal Kamble and Shikha Chaudhary will be participating in the women's event.
In the skeet event, India will have five athletes in the men's category and four in the women's section.
Zoarawar Singh Bedi, Harviraj Singh, Ishaan Singh Libra, Yashvardhan Singh Rajawat and Anjaneya Singh Mandawa in men's and Risham Kaur Guron, Parmeet Kaur, Agrima Kanwar and Sanyogita Shekhawat in women's will be taking the field Tuesday for India.
In all, 284 athletes from 25 countries will compete in Cairo with India fielding the largest contingent..
Hosts Egypt have fielded a 29-member squad, whereas Russia, competing under the Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) banner, has entered a large 43-member squad.
Other top shooting nations that have entered sizeable squads are France (24), Great Britain (16) and Italy (13).
With the Junior World Championships slated for June in Suhl, Germany, this will be a good opportunity for Indian shooters to stake their claim for that event.