Manavjit, Bindra in team for Doha

Coach Sunny Thomas says 33-member shooting team for the Asian Games was selected in the order of their scores

A 33-member star-studded shooting team, including World champions Manavjit Singh and Abhinav Bindra, was announced today for the 15th Asian Games to be held in Doha this December.

Although Bindra had missed the selection trials for rifle and pistol shooters at Indore owing to his back problem and Manavjit was two points behind three others in the trap trials held here, the duo were named considering the laurels they have won for the country.

Manavjit fired 255 behind the trio of Mansher Singh, Zorawar Singh and Birendip Singh Sondhi who were tied at 257 in shotgun selection trials.

Anwer Sultan, who had also missed the cut, was chosen as the third trap shooter since selectors decided not to disturb the tested combination of Manavjit, Mansher and Sultan.

Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, World Cup bronze medallist Sonia Rai, Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung and Anjali Bhagwat will be other cynosures in the team that promises medals for the country at the meet.

The 33-strong team comprises five men and an identical number of women in air rifle, nine pistol and three women in pistol and three men each in trap, double trap and skeet events. There are a total of 25 men and eight women in the team.

8220;We have selected the team in the order of their scores. We did not touch the air rifle team as they are our best medal bets. However, there was no question of keeping Abhinav out,8221; coach Sunny Thomas said.

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Foolchand Bungar, who finished third in the trials, made way for Bindra. 8220;And in case Bindra fails to take part on the day of event, Sanjeev Rajput will take his place,8221; Thomas said.

Among women, Deepali Despande was preferred ahead of Meena Kumari, who topped in prone trials, because of the Maharashtrian8217;s better finish in the 3 position.

Anjali Bhagwat will once again miss her pet 10m air rifle event. Suma Shirur makes a comeback after a lay-off with her superb scores behind topper Tejaswini Sawant.

In the standard pistol event, Ronak Pandit was selected ahead of C K Chaudhary. Women8217;s sports pistol team failed to qualify as no one could touch the benchmark of 583. The highest score was 576.

The Team

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8226; Men: Pemba Tamang Rapid Fire Pistol, Vijay Kumar Rapid Fire Pistol, Centre Fire Pistol, Rahul Pawar Rapid Fire Pistol, Ronak Pandit Standard Pistol, Air Pistol, Jaspal Rana Standard Pistol, Centre Fire Pistol, Samresh Jung Standard Pistol, Centre Fire Pistol, Air Pistol, Free Pistol, Deepak Sharma Air Pistol, Bapu Aapu Vanjare Free Pistol, Zakir Khan Free Pistol, Sanjeev Rajput Free Rifle 3 Position, Gagan Narang Air Rifle, Free Rifle 3 P, Imran Hasan Khan Free Rifle 3 Position, Free Rifle Prone, Abhinav Bindra Air Rifle, P T Raghunath Air Rifle, Surendra Singh Rathore Free Rifle Prone, Sushil Ghaley Free Rifle Prone, Ronjon Sodhi, R V S Rathore, Vikram Bhatnagar all three in Double Trap, Mansher Singh, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Anwer Sultan all three in Trap, A D People, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Man Singh all three in Skeet.

8226; Women: Sonia Rai, Harveen Srao, Shweta Choudhary all three in Air Pistol, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Suma Shirur both Air Rifle, Tejaswini Sawant Air Rifle, Sport Rifle Prone, Sport Rifle 3 P, Anjali Bhagwat and Deepali Deshpande Sport Rifle 3 Position, Sport Rifle Prone.