Junior world champion Noria replaces Rathore in CWG shooting squad

NEW DELHI - Junior World Champion Asher Noria replaced Athens Olympic silver medallist double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the 36-member shooting squad for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games that was announced here Tuesday by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

Rathore, who lashed out at the “vindictive attitude” of the NRAI, skipped the last day of the trials at the Karni Singh Shooting Range Monday and was ineligible for selection.

Rathore was the title holder in the double trap event in Melbourne.

Also star of Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Samaresh Jung, who was adjudged as the best athlete with five gold medals in 2006, has qualified only for the standard pistol event.

Jung has been going through a rough patch and lost his place in the air pistol and free pistol category.

Rifleman Sanjeev Rajput was unlucky to lose his spot to Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.

Rajput, who won the silver in the 10 metre air rifle event in the Sydney World Cup earlier this year, was second in the trials with 593 points while Bindra, India’s first individual Olympic champion, was third with an overall average of 592.5 points. Gagan Narang was on top with 595.75 points.

But Bindra got three bonus points due to his Beijing Olympic gold, pushing Rajput to third spot. Unlike, other international tournaments only two shooters can compete in any shooting event in Commonwealth Games and Rajput, despite a good showing, failed to make the cut. Though he features in the team for the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China from Nov 12-27.

Bindra and Narang were selected in 10m air rifle. Narang, who won the World Championship bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event earlier this month in Munich, will also take part in 50m prone and 50m three position event and will be the only shooter to participate in three rifle events.

Narang is the defending champion in the 10m air rifle and 50m three poistion. In the pairs of both the event, Narang and Bindra won gold in Melbourne.

Newly crowned world champion Tejaswini Sawant will be leading the women’s challenge. Swant became the first Indian women to bag a gold in the World Championships in Munich last month.

Team for Commonwealth Games:

Rifle (men): Hariom Singh, Gagan Narang, Imran Hassan Khan, Abhinav Bindra

Pistol (men): Deepak Sharma, Omkar Singh, Vijay Kumar, Gurpreet Singh, Samaresh Jung, C.K. Chaudhary and Harpreet Singh

Shot gun: Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Mansher Singh (both trap), Mairaj Ahmad Khan and A.D. Peoples (both skeet) and Ronjon Sodhi and Asher Noria (both double trap)

Rifle (women): Suma Shirur, Kavitha Yadav, Meena Kumari, Tejaswini Sawant and Lajja Gauswami

Pistol (women): Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Heena Sidhu and Annuraj Singh

Shot gun (women): Seema Tomar and Shreyasi Singh (both trap)

Team for Asian Games:

Rifle (men): Hariom Singh, Gagan Narang, Surendra Singh Rathod, Imran Hasan Khan, Sanjeev Rajput and Abhinav Bindra

Pistol (men): Deepak Sharma, Omkar Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Vijay Kumar, Rahul Panwar, Gurpreet Singh, Samaresh Jung, C.K Chaudhary, Pemba Tamang and Harpreet Singh

Shotgun (men): Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Zorawar Singh Sandhu (all trap), Mairaj Ahmad Khan, A.D. Peoples and Smit Singh (all skeet), Ronjon Sodhi, Asher Noria and Vikram Bhatnagar (double trap)

Rifle (women): Suma Shirur, Kavitha Yadav, Tejaswini Sawant, Meena Kumari, Lajja Gauswami, Chetanpreet Kaur Nilon

Pistol (women): Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Annuraj Singh, Heena Sidhu, Shweta Chaudhary/Sonia Rai

Shotgun (women): Seema Tomar, Shreyasi Singh and Shagun Chowdhary (all trap) and Aarti Singh Rao (skeet).