The first gold medal will be decided on Thursday (August 17) in the men's 10 metre air pistol which has attracted a field of 126. 

The 119 entries for the women's 10m air pistol later in the day include Anna Korakaki of Greece, better known for her Olympic gold medal at the Rio 2016 Games in the 25m event.

Korakaki secured an Olympic quota place with her World Championships silver medal in Cairo last year.

Doreen Vennekamp of Germany, 2018 world champion in the 25m discipline, is also set to take part in the 10m air pistol on the first day.

China have sent a team of 36 to Baku, but their line up does include either of their gold medallists in the 10m air pistol events.

Men’s world champion Liu Jinyao or the women’s gold medallist Lu Kaiman have already secured their Olympic quota places last year in Cairo.

On the first day of competition, skeet shooters will also be in action at 8:00am local time for range shooting qualification.

Tokyo 2020 men's gold medallist Vincent Hancock of the United States is amongst the 127 shooters, but he is secure in the knowledge that he has already secured his quota place for Paris 2024.

Hancock finished with silver at last year’s ISSF World Shotgun Championships in Osijek, Croatia, behind Azmy Mehelba of Egypt who made sure of his Paris quota place with victory but is also set to compete here.

The men's skeet final is set for Saturday (August 19).

The women's skeet qualification features 2022 world champion Diana Bacosi of Italy who won Olympic gold at Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo.

World silver medallist Amber Rutter of Britain is also in the starting line up, but both already have quota places for Paris 2024.

Medals in the women's skeet are to be decided on Friday (August 18).

India's growth in shooting was energised by the Beijing 2008 gold won by Abhinav Bindra in 10m air rifle, the first individual Olympic gold for his country.

They already have three quota places for Paris including 10m men's air rifle champion Rudrankksh Patil.

They have sent 53 shooters here.

Pistol shooter Manu Bhaker won gold in the women's 10m pistol at the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympics and team silver at 25m in the 2022 World Championships.

She is yet to secure a quota place, but is set to compete in the 25m pistol which takes place on Sunday.

All competitions are taking place at the complex built for the 2015 European Games, which also staged an ISSF World Cup event in May this year.

"The European Games was just the beginning of this country’s competitions, the legacy was improving after the European Games," insisted ISSF secretary general Willi Grill.

"This country invested in the right things, this means that they invest in young people, if that is done, they have a good knowledge and a legacy, having the World Championships is one of the highlights."

The programme and regulations are unchanged from Tokyo with the exception of mixed skeet which is introduced for the first time at Paris 2024.

"It is very important to keep the format from the Tokyo Olympics, we will keep the sequence, we will not play with anything else as quota places are in the game here," explained Grill.

A total of 48 Olympic quota places are on offer across the three disciplines in an event which continues until September 1.

A total of 1,329 shooters are taking part from 101 nations.