A grand total of 638 athletes from 59 National Federations are entered for the first ISSF Junior World Cup of the year, with some of the brightest stars of the future flocking to Suhl, Germany.
Finals are set to take place from 20th to 26th of May, with 17 gold medals on the line.
India bring the largest team to Suhl, with a squad of 57, followed by the hosts with 46 athletes set to compete. There are 41 independent neutral athletes (AIN) entered, while Czechia bring 30 athletes, followed by Great Britain and France with 27 and 25 respectively.
China brings 22 athletes, and one of them is the Olympic silver medallist Huang Yuting. Huang finished second in the women's 10m air rifle final at Paris 2024 and won the mixed team 10m air rifle title with Sheng Lihao. She will be competing in four events in Suhl, including the 50m prone and 3 positions events. Huang Liwanlin, the world junior mixed team 10m air rifle world champion, is also on the team.
Czechia's team will be headlined by Barbora Dubska and Katerina Mikulcikova, who were part of the women's 50m rifle 3 positions team to set a qualification junior world record last year. Other junior world champions in Suhl include Spain's men's trap gold medallist Andres Garcia, Great Britain's women's skeet world champion Madeleine Zarina Russell, Romania's 10m air pistol's Luca Joldea and Hungary's women's 50m pistol champion Miriam Jako.
France's team includes two-time world champion and Olympian Romain Aufrere, while the hosts see the return of mixed team 10m air pistol world champion Celina Becker and European 10m air rifle champion Theresa Luise Schnell.
Divanshi is the women's 25m air pistol junior world championIndia will be expecting to dominate the medal table, much like they did at the 2024 ISSF Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru. There, the nation finished with 13 gold medals, eight ahead of second-placed Italy. Amongst their hot contenders will be men's 25m pistol world champion Mukesh Nelavalli, who also won three team titles and two individual bronze medals in Peru. Divanshi Divanshi, who won a dramatic women's 25m pistol final, returns too.
Italy's hopes will mostly lie in shotgun events, with their team including women's trap world champion Maria Teresa Giorgia Maccioni and bronze medallist Sofia Gori. World women's skeet bronze medallist Arianna Nember is entered too.
Norway's strong young team will include the women's 50m 3 positions gold and silver medallists Synnoeve Berg and Caroline Finnestad Lund, as well as men's two-time junior world champion Jens Oestli.
Vivien Joy and Emely Jaeggi are already notable names on the junior circuit. Vivien is the 2023 women's 50m 3 positions world champion, while Emely is a two-time world medallist and still only 16. Emely won the 3 positions title at the Suhl Junior World Cup two years ago and last year went one better, claiming bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo, competing against the best athletes in the world, irrespective of age.
Finally, American Braden Wayne Peiser will be hoping for a replication of his world title glory in rifle events, as he leads a strong team from the United States.
More information about the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl can be found on the competition
page.