Let's examine India's shooting potential in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in this article.
Follow Us
On Tuesday, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced the names of the pistol and rifle shooters who will be participating in the Olympic shooting trials in New Delhi and Bhopal. The trials will see Olympic quota achievers competing with the top shooters of the country. The trials will be conducted in four stages, but only the best three scores will be taken into account.
The first and second rounds will take place at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi from April 18 to 27. The next two rounds will occur at the MP Shooting Academy from May 10 to 19. The list doesn’t include female air pistol shooters yet. Their names will be revealed right after the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship in Rio, Brazil, as per NRAI.
Shooters in air pistol and air rifle events, who have already secured Olympic spots, will receive an extra point. However, competitors in the 50m rifle and 25m pistol categories will gain two bonus points if they have Olympic quotas. India has impressively won 19 Olympic quotas in shooting.
Reflecting on the past, India’s Olympic team went to the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016 with high hopes due to grabbing a record six medals in London in 2012. Since 2004, India has increased its Olympic medal count at each event and is expected to continue the trend.
Looking forward to the Paris Olympic Games, India faces similar high expectations after winning seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics. A successful performance at the Hangzhou Asian Games has also raised anticipation. India, having set ambitious goals at the Asian Games, aspires to surpass its previous accomplishments, and potentially secure a double-digit number of medals at the upcoming Paris Olympics.
India has an opportunity to secure four more berths in shooting disciplines with individual places for both men and women in trap and skeet categories during the competition in Doha. At the event next month, Shreyasi Singh, a gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games, alongside Mairaj Ahmad Khan, with two Olympic appearances, will be part of India’s 12-member squad.
They are set to compete at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship for Shotgun, which is scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar between April 19 and April 29. This event will highlight competitions in both the trap and skeet shooting disciplines. To date, India has claimed nineteen spots in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The Indian shotgun team has earned four of these slots—two in trap and two in skeet—recording their best performance at the Games yet. Doha presents another chance for the nation to add on four more spots, once again divided equally between men and women for both trap and skeet disciplines. Shooters who have already obtained quotas will not participate in this qualifying event, thus paving the way for other participants to vie for Olympic slots for India.
In June, the Indian shooters will participate in the Shotgun World Cup held in Lonato. Quota holders like Bhowneesh Mendiratta in men’s trap, Rajeshwari Kumari in women’s trap, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka in men’s skeet, and Raiza Dhillon in women’s skeet are set to represent in Lonato. Meanwhile, the Indian shotgun prospects are currently engaged in a technical training camp in New Delhi. They will then attend further preparatory camps before departing for Doha.
Skeet
Women: Ganemat Sekhon, Maheshwari Chauhan, Areeba Khan
Men: Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Sheeraz Sheikh, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa
Trap
Women: Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer, Neeru
Men: Prithviraj Tondaiman, Vivaan Kapoor, Zoravar Singh Sandhu
Read More-
