Shooters target ticket to Rio from World Cup in Azerbaijan

There have been few close misses, nervy moments while some have overcome the same to assure berths for the mega event. Jitu Rai, Apurvi Chandela, Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, and Gurpreet Singh have already attained top marks.

Now, more shooters will look to emulate these five-star performers as they gear up to compete at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, where 34 berths are up for grabs.

Bindra & Co will once again look to inspire the bunch — rifle, pistol and shotgun. London Olympics bronze medallist Vijay Kumar is one who will look to put behind recent blues and regain his form. The armyman, who fought demons in his mind and pain in his back (literally), has had a disappointing journey this year. But of late, supported by the Army, he has slowly got back the rhythm that was missing from his game lately.

"I’m focused on my task ahead. The conditions are favourable here. I really hope to do well this time around,” Vijay told Express. "My back is fine and is not troubling me as much. Hopefully, I should finish in the top three and also qualify for the Olympics.”

Vijay’s teammate Gurpreet, with whom he won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2010 is a confident man. After a narrow miss (25m rapid fire pistol) at the World Cup in Munich, he bounced back immediately to put up an impressive show in the air pistol event — becoming the fifth man to secure the Rio ticket. He is keen to build on his good show. "The preparations have been really good. Having already secured the berth, I feel relaxed. My target is to better my previous performance,” the 28-year-old said.

Heena Sidhu, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ayonika Paul, Chain Singh, Ankur Mittal and Mohammed Asab will also be gunning for top performances.

There are 34 quota places up for grabs in both men and women’s events at Gabala.