Olympic bronze medallists Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Sarabjot Singh will lead a 24-member Indian contingent at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, Egypt, being held from October 8 to 16, 2026. The Indian team features experienced Olympians, international medallists and emerging shooters competing across eight individual Olympic disciplines and two mixed team events.
The squad arrived in Cairo after completing a week-long national training camp at Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun from October 1 to 7. The camp focused on match simulations and refining technical routines ahead of the international competition. Official pre-event training and technical meetings were scheduled before competitive shooting began on Saturday.
Kusale will compete in the men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event alongside Akhil Sheoran and Adriyan Karmakar. In the men's 10m Air Rifle competition, Olympian Arjun Babuta will be joined by Deaflympics champion Dhanush Srikanth and Paarth Makhija. Babuta enters the event after winning silver at the 2026 Asian Shooting Championships in New Delhi. The women's rifle team includes two-time Olympian Anjum Moudgil, Ayushi Podder and Manini Kaushik in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event. Arya Rajesh Borse, who won silver at the Buenos Aires World Cup, will compete in the women's 10m Air Rifle alongside Khyati Chaudhary and Ismita Bhowal.
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In the pistol events, Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Sarabjot Singh will lead the men's 10m Air Pistol team with Ajendra Singh Chauhan and Udhayveer Sidhu. Vijayveer Sidhu will compete in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event alongside Suraj Sharma and Ankur Goel. The women's 10m Air Pistol team comprises Asian Games champion Palak, Muskan and Surbhi Rao. Olympian Rhythm Sangwan, former World Cup gold medallist Chinki Yadav and Divya TS will represent India in the women's 25m Sports Pistol competition.
The opening day features finals in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team and 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team events. Ajendra Singh Chauhan will partner Palak, while Udhayveer Sidhu will team up with Muskan in the air pistol competition. In the air rifle mixed team event, Paarth Makhija and Arya Rajesh Borse will compete alongside the pairing of Dhanush Srikanth and Khyati Chaudhary. The mixed team events provide an early opportunity for the Indian contingent to compete for medals.
Individual qualification rounds and finals across the 10m, 25m and 50m ranges are scheduled to continue through October 15, with the overall World Cup concluding on October 16. India will look to build on the experience of its Olympic medallists while giving its younger shooters an opportunity to compete against international opponents.
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