In a massive fillip to Indian shooting, Delhi will host the final Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition where 35 tickets to Rio would be up for grabs from January 25 to February 3.
The high-profile event will be the final opportunity for Asia's top shooting athletes to book their tickets for the Rio Olympics.
The final 35 Rio Olympic quota places for Asian nations will be up for grabs at the event, across the three shooting disciplines of Shotgun, Rifle and Pistol and is slated to be held at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here.
National Rifle Association of India President Raninder Singh has received a letter from the executive committee of the International Shooting Federation (ISSF), confirming the selection of NRAI as the organisers of the event.
"This is a huge honour bestowed on the country and our national federation by the ISSF and the IOC and on behalf of the NRAI we express our sincere gratitude, while assuring them that we will do our very best to deliver upon the faith reposed on us," Singh said.
"I must also take this opportunity to thank the Government of India, the Sports Ministry and the Sports Authority of India who have been always helpful and supportive in our endeavours as also in helping us make the winning bid. I hope also that this will act as a major boost to our talented shooters and spur those who have not booked their berths for Rio yet, even more," he added.
A total of five federations had expressed their interest in hosting the event after the IOC revoked the Olympic qualifying status of the Asian Shooting Championship which was held in Kuwait in October-November.
The ISSF had subsequently invited all Asian member associations for bids.
India, which already has eight Rio Olympic quota places sealed, would be looking to make the most of 'home-advantage' to grab as many quota places as possible to go better than the 11 they had won before the last Olympics in London.
The likes of Heena Sidhu, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ronjon Sodhi and Vijay Kumar are some of the shooting stars who would be fancying their chances at their home ranges.
The Karni Singh Shooting Range was very recently a host to the 8th Asian Air Gun Competition in September, which saw around 180 athletes from 14 Asian countries participating.
It was also the first time when any shooting event outside the world cups and world championships and Olympic competitions was telecast live on television and received a very positive response.
"This event will obviously be much larger in importance and scale and hence the quality of competition will be several notches higher. India should be looking to put in an excellent show particularly because Shooting has been India's second most successful Olympic sport ever and the most successful of this millennium," Singh said.
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Veteran trap shooter Manavjit, a three-time Olympian, will also look to hit the bull's eye and book a ticket to the Rio Games. The 39-year-old's last major medal was winning the gold at the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Tucson, USA.
Manavjit will be vying for honours alongside Kynan Chenai and Prithviraj Tondaiman in the trap event, while the Indian challenge in men's double trap will be spearheaded by Ankur Mittal, Mohammad Asab and the returning Ronjan Sodhi.
It is a chance for Sodhi to get back into form after a prolonged lean spell that led to him being dropped from the Indian squad. With the sole exception of Olympics, the modest trap shooter has won almost everything.
Long harbouring dreams of winning a quota, Omkar Singh's momentum met with a setback when when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait last November of its status as a qualifying tournament for Rio 2016.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist will be one of the frontrunners for a quota in the 10m air pistol event. The other two Indians in the event are Jitendra Vibhute and Aman Pathania.
Omkar will also be part of men's 50m pistol event in which he will be competing alongside the prolific Jitu Rai and Prakash Nanjappa. Both Rai and Nanjappa, though, have already secured Olympic quotas.
Besides Heena, the women's field will have a host of established shooters gunning for glory. Ayonika Paul, Pooja Ghatkar (10m air rifle), Tejaswini Sawant, Lajja Gauswami (50m rifle 3 position) and Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed (25m sports pistol), among others, will be in the fray.
Also to look out for will be youngsters such as Yashaswini Singh Deswal, Malaika Goel and Shriyanka Sadangi.
