Paris Olympics Shooting Trials: Nine Quota Winners Lose Places

The Paris Olympics shooting selection trials witnessed a fierce battle for spots, with nine out of 16 quotas in rifle and pistol events changing hands. The onus was on quota winners to defend their places, but even world championship medallists like Rudrankksh Patil, Mehuli Ghosh, and Akhil Sheoran were swept aside.

Rhythm Sangwan and Esha Singh swapped places in the 10m pistol and 25m pistol events, respectively. However, the biggest casualty was Rudrankksh, the 2022 world champion and only the second Indian air rifle shooter after Abhinav Bindra to win a world title. Mehuli and Sheoran, who had secured Olympic quotas with bronze medals at the world championships, also lost their places.

The selection trials were held over four rounds in Delhi and Bhopal, with the shooters' three best scores considered. The bonus points for quota winners were reduced to level the playing field.

The new policy was introduced after the debacle in Tokyo, where shooters who had performed well in the qualification cycle failed to deliver at the Olympics. The trials were designed to select the team based on current form.

In men's 10m air rifle, Sandeep Singh emerged as the surprise topper, ahead of quota winner Arjun Babuta and Rudrankksh. In women's 10m air rifle, Tokyo Olympian Elavenil came to the fore, while Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal grabbed the second place. In men's rifle 3P, Aishwary Pratap Tomar topped and sealed his place, beside Swapnil Kusale.

The final call to pick the team remains with the NRAI selection committee, but it will be difficult to make any changes considering that the team has been selected through a policy. Paris will put the new policy to test, and India will hope that the Worlds medallists are not missed too much.

Tags: #Shooting, #ParisOlympics, #SelectionTrials, #QuotaWinners, #WorldChampionships