New Delhi shooting World Cup to offer 16 Olympic quotas

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New Delhi: The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in the Capital early next year will offer 16 quota places for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The qualification route to the Olympic Games in Tokyo will start from this year's ISSF World Championship in Changwon, Korea in August-September.

A total of 360 quotas will be distributed in the 15 Olympic shooting events. The tournament in New Delhi, which will be held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges, will offer two quotas each in both individual men and women's sections for 10 air rifle, 10m air pistol, rifle 3 position and rapid fire pistol. The tournament will not involve quotas for mixed team events, which are marked only for the World Championships.

The 52nd World Championships will be held from August 31 to September 15. There are 48 individual Olympic quotas and 12 mixed team Olympic quotas set to be assigned there. India recently produced its best-ever showing in an ISSF World Cup when its shooters grabbed nine medals, including four gold, in the tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico.

This was a welcome change within two years of the country's disastrous outing at the Rio Olympics. From where the shooting team returned empty-handed after winning medals in three successive Olympics.