The Indian trio of Deepak Kumar, Ravi Kumar and Satyendra Singh will aim for top honours when the first two of the 10 Gold medals will be up for grabs in the opening day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) stage four at Munich's famous Olympic Shooting Range in Germany on Friday.
The Men's 10m Air Rifle event will see a staggering 129 shooters from 59 countries line-up to qualify for the eight-man final, while an equally high number of 122 shooters from 55 countries will compete for top honours in the Women's event.
Both Deepak and Ravi made it through to the final of the event in first World Cup stage held in New Delhi in March, finishing 5th and 8th respectively.
They would be looking to improve upon that performance and come back with a medal in an event, which has produced two Olympic medals for the country, including its only ever individual Olympic Gold medal.
However, it will not be easy as five of the eight Rio Olympic finalists including Silver medalist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine, Bronze medalist Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia, Oleh Tsarkov of Ukraine, the experienced former World Champion and multiple World Cup Gold medalist Peter Sidi of Hungary and Illia Charheika of Belarus, as well as former Olympic Champion Alin Moldoveanu of Romania, will be in the fray.
The women's field is also packed, both with numbers and quality and Pooja Ghatkar of India, who won her first World Cup Bronze in the event earlier in New Delhi this year, will again be leading India's challenge along with Rio Olympian Apurvi Chandela. The young Meghana Sajjanar of Bangalore will be the third Indian in the fray.
The event will see the reigning Olympic Champion Virginia Thrasher of the United States, for the first time in competition after the Rio games.
She will be challenged by the likes of Zhang Binbin of China, a Rio Silver medalist in the Women's Prone, Italy's Petra Zublasing, a former World Champion and finalists at Rio Daria Vdovina of Russia and multiple World Cup Gold medalist Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia, among others.
The opening day will also see the elimination rounds for the Men's 50m Pistol event be conducted. Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa and Amanpreet Singh will carry Indian hopes in the event. More than 750 top shooters from 80 National Olympic Committee's are set to take part in the Munich World Cup.
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