NEW DELHI: Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang will spearhead a strong 37-member Indian squad at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako city, Japan, from December 8-11.
The Indian team consists of junior, youth and senior shooters for the upcoming tournament, which will see a total of 407 athletes from 27 countries compete over the next four days at the Asaka Shooting Range that will be used for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics shooting competitions.
There are three finals lined up for tomorrow -- 10m Air Rifle Men, 10m Air Rifle Women and Junior Men's finals.
Narang will lead India's challenge in the first event itself, along with Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar.
The tournament will act as a qualification for the Youth Olympic Games, scheduled for Buenos Aires, Argentina, next year.
Asia has a total of 14 quota places in shooting for the Youth Olympics. 13 Indian shooters will be vying for those quota places across the four 10m Air Rifle and Air Pistol events in the youth category.
The Indian contingent recently put up a strong show at the Commonwealth Shooting Championship and the likes of Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu will be competing in Japan as well.
Heena Sidhu had won a gold, while the trio of Shahzar Rizvi, Omkar Singh and Jitu Rai had ensured a clean sweep for India in men's air pistol at the Commonwealth Shooting Championship.
With the Youth Olympic Games spot up for grabs, India's young shooters like Arjun Singh Cheema, Saurabh Chaudhary and Surinder Singh will be leading the charge in the 10m Air Pistol Men youth category.
In the 10m Air Rifle men, Mohit Kumar Agnihotri, Dikshant Gupta, Hriday Hazarika and Tushar Mane will be fighting for the quota spot.
In the women's 10m Air Pistol Youth Women, Manu Bhaker, Anushka Patil, Raghav Priya will compete for the Olympic spot.
The 10m Air Rifle Women Youth will see representation from Shreya Agarwal, Kavi Rakshna Chakkaravarthy and Mehuli Ghosh.