Paris 2024 Olympics: India amend bonus points policy for selecting shooting squad

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has amended its selection criteria for the Paris 2024 Olympics to ensure that it picks the best Indian shooters for the Summer Games next year.

Earlier, the NRAI awarded 10 bonus points to Olympic quota winners while a fourth-place at the ISSF World Championships earned five points. Indian shooters who won a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup were allocated six bonus points, while the silver and bronze medallists earned four and two, respectively.

These points came in handy during India’s national selection trials for the Olympics, where other hopefuls were unable to match the final tally of those with bonus points. The bonus points also gave an advantage to a shooter who may not be in form ahead of the Olympics.

It was under this selection criteria that Indian shooters returned empty-handed from the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The amendment will seek to ensure that consistent and top international performers get a fair shot at selection for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Under the new criteria, only two bonus points will be awarded to Olympic quota winners in the pistol category and one to rifle shooters.

The Olympic shooting selection trials will be held in May. There, the final average score (FAS) will be calculated as the average of the three best scores from the trials and the bonus points.

In all, four trials will be conducted. New Delhi will host the first two trials from May 3 while Bhopal will host the next two from May 23.

India have so far won 13 quota places in shooting for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

While it’s individual shooters who secure the quotas, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have the exclusive authority to decide the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games and athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their National Sports Federations selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.

“Similar (bonus) points will also be available to the shooter, who was eligible to win a quota but was not awarded as India had already earned a maximum of two quotas, provided the rank of the shooter was within the first three ranks,” the NRAI added in a statement.

“All such shooters will be ‘deemed’ to be quota holders and will enjoy all the privileges and benefits of quota holders.”

In Olympic shooting, only two quotas are available for a country in each event.

The top five shooters in each category will compete in the trials. It will include all quota holders and the ‘deemed’ quota holders among others.