The National Rifle Association of India provided a golden opportunity to promising shooter Harveen Srao to qualify for next year’s Beijing Olympics by including her on Monday in the 37-member team for the Asian Shooting Championship to be held in Kuwait from December 3 to 13.

Asian Games double gold medal winner Jaspal Rana was, however, absent from the team comprising 23 men and 14 women, who will vie for quota places at the event which would be the last chance for Indian shooters to qualify for the Olympics.

Harveen, who defeated reigning Olympic champion Kostevych Olena of Ukraine to win the title at the University Games earlier this year, failed to be among the top three finishers in women’s air pistol event during selection trials but the selection committee considered her performance at international events to include her in the team ahead of the others.

“Harveen has the potential to qualify for Beijing Olympics. She has scored over 388 in international competitions, made the final of the World Cup at Fort Benning in the US and was the best shooter in Bangkok last year. Her trial scores were not so good but we have faith in her and want to give her a chance,” said chief coach Sunny Thomas.

“We expect to earn quota places in double trap, air rifle women, sport rifle 3-position women, air pistol men and women and rapid fire pistol events,” Thomas said.

Senior teams for Asian shooting championships:
Men: 50M Rifle 3-Position:  Gagan Narang,  Sanjeev Rajput, Imran Hasan Khan. Free Rifle Prone: Gagan Narang,  Surendre Singh Rathore, Sanjeev Rajput. Air Rifle: Gagan Narang,  P T Raghunath, Abhinav Bindra. Free Pistol: Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Omkar Singh. Rapid Fire Pistol: Vijay Kumar, Pemba Tamag, Harpreet Singh. Air Pistol: Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Deepak Sharma. Centrefire Pistol: Vijay Kumar, Samresh Jung, Pushpinder Singh.

Standard Pistol: Samresh Jung, Vivek Singh, Vijay Kumar. Trap: Manavjit Singh, Zorawar Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh. Double Trap: Ronjon Singh Sondhi, RVS Rathore, Vikram Chopra. Skeet: A D People, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Amit Sanghi

Women: Sport Rifle 3-Position: Tejaswini Sawant, Anjali Bhagwat, Raj Kumari. Sport Rifle Prone: Tejaswini Sawant, Raj Kumari, Meena. Air Rifle: Suma Shirur, Priya Agarwal, Avneet Kaur Sidhu. Air Pistol: Shweta Chaudhary, Nausheen Fathima, Harveen Srao.

Sports Pistol: Anuraj Singh, Sushma Singh, Shweta Chaudhary Trap: Shagun Chowdhary. Skeet: Arti Singh Rao.