NANJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has decided on the roster for the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Championships 2022 to be held in Cairo, Egypt in October as the last stop of the national trials concluded here on Thursday.
Three Tokyo Olympic champions Yang Haoran, Zhang Changhong and Jiang Ranxin will lead the 24-strong team after earning their places through the six stops of national trials.
Yang will compete in the men's 10m air rifle and the mixed team event, for which he grabbed bronze and gold medal respectively at Tokyo 2020. He will be accompanied by Tokyo silver medalist Sheng Lihao and Song Buhan in the men's event.
Yang's gold-winning partner in the mixed team, Yang Qian, finished fourth in the trials and lost her ticket to Huang Yuting, Zhang Yu and Wang Zhilin, all of whom were born after 2000.
Huang, who will be 16 when the world championships starts, is the youngest of the team but had a dominating performance during the trials. The young prospect will also participate in the mixed team event, and so is Zhang Yu, although how they will pair up with Yang and Sheng is not yet decided.
For the men's 50m rifle three positions, Olympic champion Zhang Changhong will fight alongside Liu Yukun and Zhao Zhonghao, while Miao Wanru, Shi Mengyao and Zhang Qiongyue qualified for the women's competition.
Jiang Ranxin, who won the 10m air pistol mixed team with veteran Pang Wei in Tokyo, will partner with either Zhang Bowen or Liu Jinyao this time at the world championships. Li Xue also earned her place in the mixed team event, and finished ahead of Jiang in the women's competitions. Lu Kaiman (women's) and Zhang Yifan (men's) completed the air pistol roster.
In the women's 25m pistol event, Tokyo bronze medalist Xiao Jiaruixuan saved her world championships ticket with a second-place finish in the last stop of the national trials, which enabled her to surpass Feng Sixuan by 0.6 ranking points. Liu Rui topped the ranking followed by Chen Yan.
The men's 25m rapid fire pistol event will see veteran Li Yuehong, who will turn 33 on Sunday, vie for his first world title after finishing third in 2010 and 2014. The two-time Olympic bronze medalist and the oldest shooter of the team is accompanied by Lu Zhiming and Zhang Jueming.
The ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Championships 2022 will be held from October 12 to 25. ■
