New Delhi: The Indian shooters, who returned with a rich haul from the Manchester Commonwealth Games, on Tuesday expressed guarded optimism about their prospects in the Asian Games starting at Busan on September 29.

Ace marksman Abhinav Bindra said the shooters, who formed the first batch of Indian contingent leaving for Busan on Tuesday, needed to score much higher than at Manchester Commonwealth Games to win a medal.

"We need to score higher than we did in Manchester," said Bindra adding that the shooters will have to excel in individual as well as team events to bring success to the country.

"We are quite capable of winning medals as we have prepared hard. But the competition would be tough," said Bindra.

Another shooter T K Sikdar, however, said it would be "very difficult for the team to win medal in shooting as China, Korea and Japan could pose threats to India's chances."

He said the success of the shooting team would "largely depend on the troika of Jaspal Rana, Bindra and Anjali Bhagawat."

The weightlifters, who like the shooters had reaped rich harvests in Manchester, also felt that repeating their Commonwealth performance would be very difficult.

"If fate favours us, we can win few medals," said Kunjarani Devi adding that though the lifters have prepared hard for the meet it would be an altogether different test for them at Busan.

PTI_