Buenos Aires [Argentina], April 3 (ANI): Competitions for the international season's first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, are set to commence in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires and taking aim first-up will be the men's pistol and the men's and women's skeet shooters at the Tiro Federal Argentino de Buenos Aires shooting range, come Thursday.

Day one of the competitions will also see the first of 15 finals with a top-class men's 10m air pistol field including three Indians, Saurabh Chaudhary, Ravinder Singh and Varun Tomar, looking to give their respective countries a golden start to the tournament and in-fact, the year.

Meanwhile, the men's and women's Skeet competitions will have only the first two qualifying rounds comprising 25 targets each played out on day one.

All 15 finals can be streamed live on the official ISSF YouTube channel.

Over 400 shooters, including a galaxy of reigning and former Olympic and World champions from as many as 45 countries, will compete for 15 gold medals on offer, looking to begin the year on a high. This includes a block of 23 athletes who will be participating as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN). The ISSF World Cup stages, after the Olympics and the World Championships, are the highest level of competition in the sport.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) had announced a 35-member team for the Argentina World Cup with double Olympic bronze medalist Manu Bhaker competing in two individual and one mixed team event. Nine of the 35 will be in action on Thursday.

The qualifications begin at 5.45 pm IST and the final will start at 8 pm IST.

The men's air pistol field is 40-strong and is probably the only one having all three Paris medalists listed to start in China's Olympic Champion Xie Yu and Italians Federico Maldini and Paolo Monna who won silver and bronze respectively.

If that was not competition enough for the Indian trio led by the mercurial Saurabh Chaudhary, albeit on an international comeback trail, the likes of former Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany, Serbian legend Damir Mikec, Brazil's Olympic medalist Filipe Almeida Wu and the consistent and talented Kazakh Nikita Chiryukin, will make a medal in this first final, truly coveted.

Indian coach Samaresh Jung was confident of the performance of his wards saying, 'They have been competing and training hard throughout the year, not only in our camps and after reaching here. Some of the boys also had a fun workout competing in some local matches that were organized between South American nations who had arrived early. They know what is expected of them and we are confident of a good showing. At this level the field is always strong.'

Besides Saurabh, Varun Tomar and Ravinder Singh, will be vying for medals for India.

In Skeet as well, India has a relatively young and talented squad at the peak of their powers and a good showing can be expected.

The women's squad has Olympian Raiza Dhillon, Indian number one and national record holder Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore, all individual medalists at this level.

Yet another Paris Olympian Anantjeet Singh Naruka will be at the forefront of the men's challenge along with the talented Bhavtegh Gill in his rookie senior year. Gurjoat Khangura will lend experience to the trio.

Coach Amrinder Singh Cheema said ahead of D-day, 'It's been five days of training here and we had to overcome jet lag as well. The conditions are challenging but the same for everyone and a good day one will hopefully bring out the best in our shooters.'

Double Olympic champion Gabriele Rossetti will be the favourite in the men's skeet while American legend Kimberly Rhode will lead a usually strong US squad in the women's event. Chile's reigning Olympic champion Francisco Crovetto Chadid is also listed to start in the women's skeet.

The year's first World Cup stage has seen a galaxy of Shooting stars descend on the Argentine capital. The biggest of them of course is seven-time Olympic champion Rhode of the USA who will be leading a strong American contingent, especially in the Shotgun discipline.

Other top shooting nations like China, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Austria and Germany are well represented. Many strong Russian shooters also form part of the AIN block and their presence at the international stage after a gap might change a lot of calculations. (ANI)