"VAN" (Sports Desk - 08.11.2025) :: As many as four gold medals, divided equally among Olympic and non-Olympic events, will be decided on competition day one of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday (Nov 08, 2025), with 15 Indians in action across the five events in the detail. The women’s and men’s 10m air rifle finals, will no doubt be the showstoppers being popular Olympic events, with the non-Olympic 50m pistol event also giving out two gold medals on day one.
A total of 720 athletes from 71 member federations will compete in Cairo’s Olympic Shooting range over 10 competition days, in what has now become a regular venue in the international shooting calendar over the past few years.
The Shooting World Championship is often referred to as the pinnacle of the sport by athletes given a wider array of top shooters in the fray than the Olympics and as such Cairo 2025 will truly be a clash of the titans with almost all reigning world and Olympic champions in the fray.
India has fielded a 40-strong squad to participate in 17 events, including all the 10 Olympic events on the roster.
The two 10m Air Rifle finals for men and women respectively, are set to be the highlights of the opening day and for India, Rudrankksh Patil, currently the 10th best in the world, will be back at the venue of his biggest achievement, having being crowned world champion in Cairo in 2022. The women’s final is scheduled to start at 5 PM IST while the men’s final will start at 9 PM IST.
Arjun Babuta, fourth in the Paris Olympics, will also be by his side and has also done well in Cairo while rookie Vishal Singh, will complete the trio.
Both Rudrankksh and Arjun have been in medal winning international form this year, with the former picking up an individual gold at the Buenos Aires World Cup and the latter winning silver in Lima, besides winning multiple mixed team medals at the continental and world levels.
They will have their task cut out however given the presence of several heavyweights and legends in the 110-strong field, none more intimidating than reigning world record holder and Olympic champion Sheng Lihao of China, all of 20 and eyeing a first worlds title, having being relegated to bronze at the same venue three years back.
The task will be equally daunting for India’s air rifle women’s trio comprising two-time Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, Meghana Sajjanar and Shreya Agrawal, in an even larger 121-strong world championship qualification field.
Here too, both Ela and Meghana have done well in international competitions this year picking up individual world cup medals, but in a field which will have Olympic champion Ban Hyojin of Korea, besides two sensational Chinese teenagers in Wang Zifei and Peng Xinlu among others, the three Indians will have to be at their very best in the 60-shot qualification round to have a shot at the medals.
The first batch of the squad arrived well in time and one thing going for India will be the familiarity of the range. “Some are making their sixth trip here,” quipped Deepali Deshpande, coach of the team from Cairo. She added, “We came well in time and settled down and have trained hard not only over the past couple of days, but also at the camp back home last month. The Shooters have also had a refreshing break from competition, are eager to get back to the grind and we are a confident of a good showing. Weather has also been very good so far.”
In the other medal events of the day, Kamaljeet, Ravinder Singh and Yogesh Kumar line-up for India in the men’s 50m pistol, while in the corresponding women’s event Parisha, Priyanka Patel and Sakshi Suryavanshi, will aim for gold.
The day will also see Olympian Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh and Sameer, yet another rookie at this level, navigate through the first qualification round of the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) event.
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