Indian shooter Maheshwari Chauhan clinched the 21st shooting quota for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics, marking her fifth in the shotgun category. Her impressive performance in the women’s skeet event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday secured the coveted spot.
The Doha event served as the final qualifying opportunity for Paris 2024 in the shotgun discipline. According to Olympics.com, the top two shooters from each event, with a maximum of one per country, earned the quotas at the competition.
Maheshwari secured the second position in the women’s skeet event, closely behind Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid. Both athletes scored 54 points each, leading to a shoot-off where the Chilean emerged victorious by 4-3.
Expressing her excitement, Maheshwari stated, “I am thrilled. There has been a lot of hard work over the years to get here. I am a bit bummed about the shoot-off, but overall, it has been very satisfying,” as quoted by Olympics.com.
In addition to Maheshwari, other Indian shotgun shooters who have secured Olympic quotas are Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap), Rajeshwari Kumari (women’s trap), Raiza Dhillon (women’s skeet), and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (men’s skeet).
The allocation of slots for representation at the Paris Olympics rests with the National Olympic Committees (NOCs). Therefore, athletes with quotas may not necessarily compete at the event.
Maheshwari’s quota also opens the possibility for India to field two shooters in the women’s skeet event in Paris.
During the qualifiers, Maheshwari set a national record by scoring 121 points, securing the fourth position and advancing to the six-person final round. However, Ganemat Sekhon and Areeba Khan fell short of qualifying for the final.
In the men’s skeet event, none of the three Indian shooters progressed beyond the qualifiers. Mairaj Ahmed, Angadvir Singh Bajwa, and Sheeraj Sheikh finished 75th, 77th, and 79th, respectively, in the qualifiers, missing out on the final round.
Unfortunately, Indian trap shooters failed to secure additional quotas for their country at the Doha event.
With 21 out of 24 possible quotas secured, including all eight quotas each in rifle and pistol events, Indian shooters have achieved their best-ever quota haul in shooting for any edition of the Olympics, surpassing the count of 15 from Tokyo 2020.