Narang, Jitu ignored for Asian Games

The seasoned Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and young Mehuli Ghosh failed to make the Indian shooting squad for the upcoming Asian Games, even as a few unheralded faces were picked for the quadrennial extravaganza, starting August 18 in Indonesia.

London Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar, plagued by injuries and poor form for a long time, makes his way back into the squad for the World Championships.

The army man will be taking part in standard pistol and centre fire (non-Olympic events), though he had won the top prize of his career in rapid fire.

The two-member men's air rifle team will comprise of Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar while the 3-position team is made up of Sanjeev Rajput and Akhil Sheoran even as Narang, who returned to action after an injury lay-off, missed out.

Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela will shoot in the air rifle mixed event, while the duo of Abhishek Verma and Manu Bhaker will take aim at the air pistol mixed competition.

Though Narang has been picked for the ISSF World Championships, where a country can field three shooters, which follows the Asian Games, Jitu has failed to get a slot for the first Tokyo Olympic quota event, too, where 60 quota places are on offer.

The experienced Heena Sidhu and Manu Bhaker will represent India in the women's air pistol, while Rahi Sarnobat and Bhaker will also take part in the sports pistol event.

The team for the World Championships wears a slightly different look with the likes of Narang, Chain Singh, Shahzar Rizvi, Gurpreet Singh, Mohammad Asab (men) and Tejaswini Sawant and Mehuli (women) managing to make the grade.

Asian Games squad: Senior Rifle: Men: 3 Positions: Sanjeev Rajput, Akhil Sheoran; Air Rifle: Ravi Kumar, Deepak Kumar; 300M Standard Rifle: Harjinder Singh, Amit Kumar; Air Rifle Mixed: Ravi Kumar, Apurvi Chandela.

Women: 3 Positions: Anjum Moudgil, Gaayathri N; Air Rifle: Apurvi, Elavenil Valarivan.

Senior Pistol: Men: Air Pistol: Abhishek Verma, Saurabh Chaudhary;

Rapid Fire Pistol: Shivam Shukla, Anish; Air Pistol Mixed: Abhishek Verma, Manu Bhaker.

Women: Air Pistol: Manu, Heena Sidhu; Sports Pistol: Rahi Sarnobat, Manu. Senior Shotgun: Men: Trap: Lakshay, Manavjit Singh Sandhu; Skeet: Sheeraz Sheikh, Angadwir Bajwa; Double trap: Ankur Mittal, Shradul Vihaan; Trap Mixed: Lakshay, Shreyasi Singh.

Women: Trap: Shreyasi Singh, Seema Tomar; Skeet: Ganemat Sekhon, Rashmmi Rathore; Double Trap: Shreyasi Singh, Varsha Varman.