A total of 191 athletes from 33 nations have entered the fray and for the first time Men’s and Women’s Team competitions will also be held basis new Team event formats declared last year by the ISSF.

They will be vying for medals in the 10 events scheduled over eight competition days.

According to Skeet finals world record Angad Bajwa “it’s the first competition after more than a year and taking it like match practice before the Olympics as it’s much needed to get back into the rhythm.”

The Cairo World Cup also assumes additional significance; given this will be the final chance for 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.

"The competition begins tomorrow and we hope to do very well, largely because of the long camps we have held. Separate preparations for the Olympics I think have helped the quota place winners as well to get ready for this competition. So we are all very excited and hoping for a very good result here.”

Angad along with his senior Mairaj Ahmad Khan, will be competing on Wednesday. Gurjoat Khangura completes the three-man squad.

The Women’s Skeet squad features Ganemat Shekhon, Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Karttiki Singh Shaktawat.

The first final will be the Women’s Skeet final and is scheduled for Thursday, February 25, which will be followed by the Men’s Skeet final on the same day.

Commenting on the importance of the event Chief Coach of the squad Mansher Singh opined, “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 2021. Being the first experience for lot of young shooters, I think it is important for them to learn from this event, as well as those who are going to the Olympics will also get very good training prior to commencing their final preparations for Tokyo.

The training here is Cairo is going very well and smoothly. The conditions are good for Shooting, the ranges are tough, so we expect the scores to be tough in terms of not very high. The boys and girls are happy with their training.

The competition begins tomorrow and we hope to do very well, largely because of the long camps we have held. Separate preparations for the Olympics I think have helped the quota place winners as well to get ready for this competition. So we are all very excited and hoping for a very good result here,” he added.

The ISSF has announced that the 10 Finals will be broadcast live on their social media streams.