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Indian shooters brought home medals in every single Olympics between 2004 and 2012 but dropped the ball in Rio and Tokyo. In light of this, the National Rifle Association of India has made some changes to the qualification criteria for a shooter to make it to the Olympic stage.
For the pistol and air rifle events, shooters will have to go through two sets of four qualification rounds to finalize their spot in Paris. After the four rounds, the three best scores of each shooter will be averaged to calculate the Final Average Score (FAS), which will serve as the basis for squad selection for 2024 Olympics.
Additionally, any athlete who has claimed an Olympic quota or is deemed a "quota-holder" will receive bonus points to their FAS. An Olympic quota is usually up for grabs at important international events like the Asian Shooting Championships. Since each country is allotted a limited number of quotas, anyone who would have received a berth had the spot not already been fulfilled is deemed a "quota-holder" by the NRAI.
In the 50m rifle and 25m pistol categories, a quota will translate to two bonus points for the shooter, while athletes in the 10m air rifle and air pistol events will have one point added to their FAS.
The first set of the Olympic shooting trials will take place at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi from May 3rd, 2024. The second set of trials will be hosted twenty days later at Bhopal Ranges from May 23rd, 2024.
Shooters who have a national ranking of 1-3 and quota holders/deemed quota holders will be allowed to participate in the trials, with a couple of more athletes getting in based on their ISSF Qualification Ranking.
Indian shotgun Olympic qualification rules
Meanwhile, the criteria for the Indian shotgun selection will follow a slightly different format. The shooters will have to appear for and shoot a minimum of three selection scores from four Olympic selection trials.
From the trials, each player's three best scores will be aggregated for the Final Ranking Points, with some bonus points available.
For shotgun Olympic quota holders, the value of their quota will differ by the event. For example, if a shooter wins their quota with an individual gold at the 2023 Asian Shotgun Championships, they would receive 5 points, whereas a quota won with a gold in a World Cup event would result in six points.
Some bonus points will also be up for grabs from certain tournaments where "Total Event Points" (the Qualification Selection Points + Final Selection Points) are available.
The selection trials are scheduled for January and February 2024, but the team will only be decided after the ISSF Olympic Qualification Championship 2024 in April.
