The tour, a build-up to the Olympics, will be the season’s first international competition for top shooters.

World air rifle champion Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Anjali Bhagwat, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Sanjeev Rajput and pistol shooter Samresh Jung have already landed berths for the Games.

Four shooters — Abhilasha Joshi, Manda Snigdha, Sapna Chaudhary and Navdeep Dhillon — will only take part in Hungary, while the others will be seen in action in both events.

Recently, at the Asian shooting championships in Kuwait and the Nationals at Ahmedabad, many top shooters didn’t perform upto the expectations. And if they fail in this trip too, then, according to chief national coach Sunny Thomas, they may be dropped from the next exposure tour which is slated to be in Australia.

However, those who have qualified for Beijing will be in the squad, irrespective of their performance from now on.

“Shooters for the European tour were selected on the basis of four trials held last year. Kuwait and Ahmedabad were not taken into account,” Thomas said.

The squad
Men: Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, PT Ragunath, Sanjeev Rajput, Kanhaiya Bhagwan Babar, Bibaswan Ganguly, Minit Jalan Shah, Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Omkar Singh, Zakir Khan, Ajitesh Kaushal, Dewank Mahaeshwari and Ankush Bhardwaj

Women: Anjali Bhagwat, Suma Shirur, Priya Narendra Agarwal, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Tejaswani Sawant, Anu Tomar, Ayonika Paul, Neha Milind, Lajja Kumari, Tilakpuri Gauswami, Shweta Chaudhry, Harveen Srao, Nausheen Fatima, Annu Raj Singh, Mandeep Sandhu, Heena Sidhu, Himadari Thapliyal, Nitu Abhilasha Joshi, Manda Snigdha, Sapna Chaudhary, Navdeep Kaur Dhillon

Chance for Raghunath
Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang have booked quota places for the Beijing Olympics in 10m air rifle, but the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is not ready to let them be complacent. As quota berths for Olympics is for the country and not for players, chances are that if the duo do not perform upto expectations in the pre-Olympics tournaments, then Asian champion PT Raghunath may yet get a chance to represent the country.