Olympian Raiza Dhillon named in India's squad for year's first Junior World Cup

New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has announced a 36-member Indian junior squad for the upcoming first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, scheduled in Suhl, Germany, from May 19-27, 2025. The squad will participate in 15 events, including three mixed-team events.

Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon will be part of the 12-strong shotgun squad, and two stars from the Peru World Cup, Mukesh Nelavali, who won five golds (and two bronze medals), and Divanshi, who won a double gold including a win in the women’s 25m pistol individual event, will be back to hopefully do an encore.

The select 36 will also be looking to continue India’s dominance in the junior circuit on the world stage, given that Indian colts easily dominated the final event of the international junior circuit last year, the Junior World Championships in Peru in October, topping with a whopping 13 golds.

“We have a home Junior World Cup coming up in September, and the juniors will be looking to impress with an eye on that as well. We are confident of our future stars; they are under the eagle eyes of experienced coaches and are very well supported by the Government. We expect a top finish,” added Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, President, NRAI.

Suhl, a traditional hub of the junior Shooting circuit, has been a launchpad to many champions in the years gone by, and the Indian juniors will be closely watched with an eye on Los Angeles 2028.

Indian squad for year's first Junior World Cup:

10m Air Rifle Junior Men: Himanshu, Naraen Pranav Vanitha Suresh, Priyanshu Kumar

10m Air Rifle Junior Women: Shambhavi Shravan Kshirsagar, Khyati Chaudhary, Mayuri Laxman Pawar

50m Rifle 3 Positions Junior Men: Adriyan Karmakar, Rohit Kanyan, Manvendra Singh Shekhawat

50m Rifle 3 Positions Junior Women: Mahit Sandhu, Anushka H. Thokur, Prachi Shashikant Gaikwad

10m Air Pistol Junior Men: Pushpender Singh, Chirag Sharma, Anshul

10m Air Pistol Junior Women: Sanskriti Bana, Urva Chaudhary, Rashmika Sahgal

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Junior Men: Abhinav Choudhary, Mukesh Nelavalli, Sameer

25m Sports Pistol Junior Women: Riya Shirish Thatte, Divanshi, Tejaswani

Trap Junior Men: Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat, Zuhair Khan, Arjun

Trap Junior Women: Bhavya Tripathi, Sabeera Haris, Shreshtha Sisodiya

Skeet Junior Men: Harmehar Singh Lally, Atul Singh Rajawat

Skeet Junior Women: Raiza Dhillon, Yashasvi Rathore, Zorawar Singh Bedi, Vanshika Tiwari

10m Air Rifle Junior Mixed Team: Himanshu,

Naren Pranav, Vanitha Suresh, Shambhavi Shravan Kshirsagar. Khyati Chaudhary

Trap Junior Mixed Team: Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat, Zuhair Khan, Bhavya Tripathi, Sabeera Haris

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