Deprived of competition for more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s pistol and rifle shooters will renew their quest for excellence when the ISSF World Cup begins here from Friday.

In the first multi-nation Olympic sport event of this scale anywhere in the world amid the pandemic, India is fielding a strong 57-member squad, including the 15 quota holders for the Tokyo Olympics.

Among them is Anish Bhanwala, an 18-year-old from Karnal, who will be gunning for an Olympic quota in the 25m rapid fire pistol event.

What could help Anish in his endeavour is his high world ranking and the qualifications of others ranked above him. Anish is currently ranked 12th in the world. The ISSF could allot individual quota to the athlete who accumulates more ranking points by the May 31 deadline.

The tournament is more important for shooters looking to secure rank-based points and subsequent quotas for the Tokyo Games.

On the first day of the competition, India will see participation from Divyansh Singh Panwar, Arjun Babuta and Deepak Kumar in the men’s 10m air rifle qualification. Pankaj Kumar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar will shoot in MQS (Minimum Qualification Score).

That will be followed by a world class line-up featuring the extremely talented Elavenil Valarivan, Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (the first two Tokyo Games quota winners from India) in the women’s 10m air rifle competition. Shriyanka Sadangi and Nisha Kanwar will be in the MQS.

A total of 294 athletes will be seen in action in the tournament with as many as 53 countries confirming their entries, including Korea, Singapore, USA, United Kingdom, Iran, Ukraine, France, Hungary, Italy, Thailand and Turkey. However, shooting powerhouses China and Japan will not be participating.