ISSF Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship 2024: Indian trap shooters draw blank in Doha
None of the six Indian trap shooters in action at Doha managed to make the finals of their respective events.
Indian trap shooters returned empty-handed at the ISSF Final Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
None of the three Indian shooters - Vivaan Kapoor, Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj Tondaiman - in action in the men’s trap event managed to progress beyond the qualifying rounds.
The women’s contingent of Manisha Keer, Neeru and Shreyasi Singh also failed to make the final of their event.
The Doha meet is the final shotgun qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The top two shooters in each individual event (maximum one per country) secure quotas for Paris 2024.
In the men’s trap event, Prithviraj Tondaiman was the best-placed Indian in the qualification round, at 23rd, with a score of 119. Vivaan Kapoor, with 116, was 56th while Zoravar Singh Sandhu shot 114 to finish 82nd in a field of 140. Only the top six made the finals.
Manisha Keer, 37th with 111, was the top-placed Indian in the women’s trap qualifiers followed by Neeru, 55th with 107, and Shreyasi Singh, 56th with 106.
This was the final chance for Indian trap shooters to secure Paris 2024 Olympic quotas for India. The contingent’s failure in Doha means India will have one shooter each in the men’s and women’s trap events at the upcoming Summer Games.
Bhowneesh Mendiratta obtained a men’s trap quota from the 2022 World Championships while Rajeshwari Kumari secured one in women’s trap at the 2023 World Championships.
India can still obtain one quota each in the men’s and women’s skeet events from the Doha qualifiers on Sunday. Three shooters will be competing in each event.
Each country can obtain a maximum of 24 quotas in shooting for the Paris Olympics, with eight available in rifle and as many in pistol and shotgun events.
Indian shooters, so far, have already secured their full allocation in rifle and pistol events and one each in the four shotgun events, accounting for 20 quotas in total. This is India’s best-ever quota haul in shooting at any edition of the Olympics, eclipsing the 15 from Tokyo 2020.