SHOOTING
NRAI names 36-member team for Junior World Cup in May
Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon will headline the 36-member Indian junior squad announced by National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) 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.
Raiza will be part of the 12-strong Shotgun squad and two stars from the Peru worlds, 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.
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.
“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 Shri. Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, President, NRAI.
India squad for ISSF Junior World Cup
Air rifle: Himanshu, Naraen Pranav, Priyanshu Kumar; Shambhavi Kshirsagar, Khyati Chaudhary, Mayuri Pawar.
50m rifle: Adriyan Karmakar, Rohit Kanyan, Manvendra Shekhawat; Mahit Sandhu, Anushka Thokur, Prachi Gaikwad.
Air pistol: Pushpender Singh, Chirag Sharma, Anshul; Sanskriti Bana, Urva Chaudhry, Rashmika Sahgal.
25m rapid fire pistol: Abhinav Choudhary, Mukesh Nelavalli, Sameer Ghulia.
25m sports pistol: Riya Thatte, Divanshi, Tejaswani.
Trap: Vinay Chandrawat, Zuhair Khan, Arjun; Bhavya Tripathi, Sabeera Haris, Shreshtha Sisodiya.
Skeet: Harmehar Lally, Atul Rajawat, Zorawar Bedi; Raiza Dhillon, Yashasvi Rathore, Vanshika Tiwari
– Team Sportstar
TENNIS
ITF: Nitin Kumar beats fourth seed Dev Javia in pre-quarters
Nitin Kumar Sinha beat fourth seed Dev Javia 6-4 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.
In the quarterfinals, Nitin will play Stefan Vujic of Australia who beat sixth seed Siddharth Vishwakarma for the loss of six games.
Madhwin Kamath, Manish Sureshkumar, Ishaque Eqbal and Karan Singh were the other Indian players to make the quarterfinals.
The results:
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Jay Clarke (GBR) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-2, 6-1; Madhwin Kamath bt Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) 6-4, 6-0; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Dev Javia 6-4, 6-3; Stefan Vujic (Aus) bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 6-3; Manish Sureshkumar bt Sidharth Rawat 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Woobin Shin (Kor) bt Vulinet Tashi (Kos) 6-2, 7-5; Ishaque Eqbal bt Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-2; Karan Singh bt Rohan Mehra 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-1.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Filiberto Fumagalli (Ita) & Aryan Lakshmanan bt Parth Aggarwal & Rohan Mehra 6-0, 3-0 (retired); Sai Karteek Reddy & Vishnu Vardhan bt Kabir Hans & Atharva Sharma 7-5, 6-2; Chirag Duhan & Dev Javia w.o. Karan Singh & Stefan Vujic (Aus); Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Sidharth Rawat & Yash Yadav 7-6(2), 6-0.
– Team Sportstar
ITF junior: Aarjun Pandit fights past Prakaash Sarran in quarterfinals
Second seed Aarjun Pandit had to fight his way past Prakaash Sarran 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliyawas, on Thursday.
In the semifinals, Aarjun will play Aashravya Mehra. The other semifinal will be between top seed Sehaj Singh Pawar and Vraj Gohil.
In the girls section, Aishwarya Jadhav, Harsha Oruganti, Aakruti Sonkusare and Diya Ramesh made the semifinals.
The results (quarterfinals):
Under-18 boys: Sehaj Singh Pawar bt Gandharv Kothapalli 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3; Vraj Gohil bt tanuush Ghildyal 6-3, 6-2; Aashravya Mehra bt Adhiraj Thakur 6-3, 6-2; Aarjun Pandit bt Prakaash Sarran 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Under-18 girls: Aishwarya Jadhav bt Nainika Bendram 6-0, 6-0; Harsha Oruganti bt Anandita Upadhyay 6-3, 6-4; Aakruti Sonkusare bt Sohini Mohanty 6-2, 6-3; Diya Ramesh bt Jaya Kapoor 6-4, 6-0.
– Team Sportstar
