A 13-member Indian squad will seek medals in the Shotgun World Cup starting here on Wednesday as the the International Shooting Sport Federation's marquee events return after a break of almost a year due to COVID-19 pandemic. The eight-day competition is the year's first Shotgun World Cup stage, beginning with men's and women's skeet competitions on the opening day. There will be 10 events in the competition. As many as 191 athletes from 33 countries have entered the fray and for the first time, the men's and women's team competitions will be held based on the new team event formats declared last year by the ISSF.

The Cairo World Cup assumes additional significance given that this will be the final chance for the shooters to qualify for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics on the basis of world ranking points. For example, the current world number one in men's trap, Mauro De Filippis of Italy, still does not have a Tokyo berth and will be looking to hold on to his ranking points with a good show to confirm his quota. Sharing his thoughts from Cairo, men's skeet finals world record and Tokyo 2020 quota holder Angad Bajwa said, "It's the first competition after more than a year and taking it like match practice before the Olympics. It's much needed to get back into the rhythm." Mansher Singh, chief coach of the Indian shotgun squad, said, "This is the first World Cup of the year and assumes importance after the lockdown because it should give us a good start to the calendar. "Being the first experience for lot of young shooters, I think it is important for them to learn from this event, and those who are going to the Olympics will also get very good training prior to commencing their final preparations for Tokyo.