Preparatory camp for Asian Championships begins as shooters eye continental dominance ahead of Asian Games

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi: India’s top marksmen and women assembled here at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range as the preparatory camp for the 16th Asian Shooting Championships (ASC) got underway. The championships will be held from 16th to 30th August at Shymkent in Kazakhstan with India sending the largest contingent, consisting of 182 shooters across pistol, rifle and shotgun in both Olympic and Non-Olympic events. The championships will see an intense fight for continental dominance between Asian shooting powerhouses ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games next year.

The preparatory camp follows the national camp which was conducted last month in Dehradun for rifle and pistol and Bhopal for shotgun athletes.

Among the 182 athletes, 35 seniors and 36 juniors will travel on government cost and the rest of the athletes will travel on their own costs as per tournament entry rules. A total of 734 athletes from 28 countries have so far entered the fray in this edition of ASC. Hosts Kazakhstan will have the second largest contingent with over 100 athletes while South Korea and China will send 70 and 47 athletes respectively.

The first batch of the Indian squad will include the pistol and skeet shooters who will leave for the Central Asian country on 14th August while the rifle shooters will leave on 17th August. The remaining shooters will leave on 20th August and the shooters who are participating in the non-Olympic events will leave on 24th August.

In the 15th Asian Shooting Championships 2023 held at Changwon, South Korea, India finished third in the medal tally behind China and South Korea with a total of 19 medals including six gold, eight silver and five bronze medals.