Armed with the new custom made Perazzi gun, Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore would lead India's charge in two major shooting events in Italy [Images] beginning this week.

India's several top shooters would be participating at the ISSF World Cup from Monday to May 23 in Rome and the World Shotgun Championship, May 24 to 31, in Lonato.

But the spot light would be on Rathore, using his brand new Perazzi DB 81 for the first time.

The Lt. Colonel believed that with the switch to the new gun specifically designed to suit his personal features and style, his performance was bound to improve.

"The difference is that with the MX8 (his older gun), the eye used to be 2 mm over the barrel. With the new DB 81 the eye will be 20 mm over the barrel. It helps better visibility and eases the stress on the eyes during prolonged concentration," Rathore said.

The Perazzi DB 81 is a 0.12 bore twin-barrel, over and under shotgun, with raised sights.

"The change to new gun was long overdue. I competed in the Olympics [Images] with the same gun that I used as a new comer to this sport six years ago, when I did not know much about gun fit," the ace marksman said.

"The new one is custom made for me and will help improve my performance from good to very good. It takes time to adjust to a new gun but the change is better sooner rather than later."

The World Cup in Rome would be held at the beautiful Valle Aniene range, which has hosted several international competitions including the ISSF World Cup Final 2003.

The competition will see 436 shooters from 70 countries vying for top honours.

After official training sessions scheduled for Tuesday, competitions would start from Wednesday.

Rathore was in Italy to get acclimatised and following a strict training regimen with his Italian coach Luca Marini who guided him at the Olympics as well.

The other Indians who reached Italy early for training ahead of the World Cup included Manavjeet Singh Sandhu, Moraad Ali Khan and Ronjan Sodhi.

Overseeing a rigorous training regimen, coach Luca Marini said, "Rathore is preparing well, the transition to the new gun hopes to be promising.

"He has great potential and is extremely hard working. Without doubt his best is yet to come. My problem is not in making him work hard, but keeping him away from working too hard and burning himself out.

"Our focus is on the World Shotgun Championships yet we will put in our best for the Rome World Cup also. The other Indians training here like Sandhu are shooting well and show a lot of promise."

The Indian team, which has fielded 15 shooters, has six participating in trap, five in double trap and an equal number in skeet.

Double trap was expected to be the most keenly contested event with all the top shooters of the world competing.

The participants include the three Athens Olympic medallists, the defending world champion Walton Eller of USA, the world record holder Daniele Di Spigno of Italy and all the top shooters of the world.

The World Shotgun Championship, which is held once in every two years, has attarcted the best shooters from around the the world, as gold medallists in each category at the Championship would secure a direct quota berth to the next Olympics in Beijing [Images] in 2008.

Indian team

Men: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore [Images], Moraad Ali Khan, Ronjan Sodhi, Vikram Bhatnagar (Double Trap); Darius Chenai, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Birendeep Sodhi, Anwer Sultan (Trap); Prithviraj Singh Bedi, Amit Sanghi, Amardeep Singh Rai, Rahul Rai (Skeet)

Women: Shagun Chowdhary (Trap, Double Trap), Arti SinghRao (Skeet).