India's 'gold hope' shooting contingent reaches Tokyo

INDIA'S 15-member shooting contingent for the Tokyo Olympics checked into the Games Village on Saturday (17) along with the support staff. The squad was based in Croatia since early May for training and competition and flew to Japan from Zagreb.

Indian Olympic Association chief Narinder Batra confirmed the shooters’ arrival in Tokyo less than a week before the quadrennial event kicks off.

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For India, the shooting contingent has emerged as one of the strongest hopes for a gold medal. The optimism around the shooters is based on their consistent performance in the last few years, encompassing this Olympic cycle which started with the 2018 World Championships. India have won multiple medals at various international shooting events over the last four years and the top shooters have consistently made the finals in the main rifle and pistol events.

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At Tokyo, India will compete across rifle, pistol and shotgun events. This is the largest Indian shooting contingent at the mega event and perhaps the most prolific too with a number of current and former world No.1 and World Cup gold medallists.

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The Indian team, however, did not impress in the recently-concluded ISSF World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, where it won one gold, a silver and two bronze medals for a 10th place finish.

Shooting will be one of the earliest medal events in this year’s Olympics, starting with the women’s 10metre air rifle.

India have won four Olympic medals in shooting so far. While Abhinav Bindra won a gold in Beijing in 2008, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Athens, 2004) and Vijay Kumar (London, 2012) won silvers and Vijay Kumar won a bronze in London.