After awarding its first medals in the 10m Air Rifle Women, 10m Air Rifle Men and Trap Women events during the opening day of the season, the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi will break into the Pistol discipline today, as the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final will come up at 1:00 pm (UTC+5:30).
In the afternoon, then, the men’s Trap shooters will compete in the second Shotgun final of the competition, after Australia’s Penny Smith grabbed the women’s Trap Gold yesterday.
A total of 70 athletes will compete in the two matches, representing 28 NOCs.
25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men
Given the absence of the reigning Olympic Champion, Germany’s Christian Reitz, French shooter Jean Quiquampoix, Silver medalist at Rio 2016, will surely be among the contenders for a medal together with his teammate Boris Artaud, Bronze medalist in this event at the ISSF World Cup stage held in Gabala (AZE) in 2015.
Quiquampoix will have to face a renewed Chinese selection, where Lao Jiajie, Lin Junmin and Lu Zhiming will try to follow the path tracked by Li Yuehong, Bronze medalist at last year’s Olympics and not participating in the first World Cup stage of the season.
1997-born Sergei Evglevski of Australia will make his debut in this competition, after winning three total medals in this event at the 2015 and 2016 junior competitions held in Suhl (GER). Evglevski, who also won the continental at the Oceanian Championship in 2015, will be one half of a young and talented Australian team, where he will be joined by Thomas James Ashmore, also a debutant in an ISSF World Cup.
The National home team will be represented by veteran shooters Gurpreet Singh and Harpreet Singh, and by the 22-year-old rookie Neeraj Kumar.
Trap Men
Italy’s legendary Trap Men shooter and four-time Olympic medalist Giovanni Pellielo will headline the pack of multi-decorated shooters competing for the first Trap Men Gold of the season.
Pellielo, who will be accompanied by young teammates Simone D’Ambrosio and Valerio Grazini, will meet again with Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic, who beat him in the Gold medal match at last year’s Olympic Games.
The Croatian team will be completed by Glasnovic’s brother Anton and by the London 2012 Gold medalist and current ISSF World Cup Final title holder in this event, Giovanni Cernogoraz, currently ranked 4th in the world.
A two-time Gold medalist during the 2016 ISSF World Cup Series, Alberto Fernandez of Spain will also be among the contenders for a spot in the final, while the home crowd will undoubtedly cheer for the talented 26-year-old Kynan Chenai, bearing the Indian flag alongside Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Birendeep Sodhi.