Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Raiza Dhillon secured Paris Olympic quotas for India with silver medals in the men’s and women’s skeet events, respectively, at the Asian Shotgun Championships in Kuwait City on Saturday.
The two quotas take India’s shooting tally to 19, four more than the previous record tally of 15 for the Tokyo 2020 Games. However, these were India’s first quotas in the men’s and women’s skeet events for the Paris Games.
Jinmei Gao of China shot 56/60 for the gold medal in the women’s skeet final ahead of Raiza Dhillon’s 52/60. Maheshwari Chauhan 43/50 won the bronze medal while Ganemat Sekhon, who was the third Indian in the six-woman final, finished fourth with 30/40.
Ganemat Sekhon came second in the qualification round with a score of 117 from 125 shots. Maheshwari Chauhan shot 115 for third place while Raiza Dhillon managed a similar score of 115 but took the sixth spot following a shoot-off.
The combined score of 347 in the women’s skeet qualifying round from the three Indian shooters helped India clinch the gold medal in the women’s skeet team event. China (342) won the silver medal while Kazakhstan (333) claimed the bronze.
The men’s skeet final saw Anantjeet Singh Naruka, an Asian Games silver medallist, shoot 56/60 for the silver medal. Chinese Taipei’s Lee Meng Yuan claimed the gold medal with 57/60 while Kuwait’s Mohammad Aldaihani won the bronze medal with 47/50.
Naruka made the men’s skeet final after scoring 121 in the qualification round for second place. Munek Battula (113) and Gurjoat Khangura (113) finished 18th and 21st,respectively. The combined score of 347 fetched India the bronze medal with China (353) claiming the gold medal while Kuwait (350) settling for silver.
At the shooting meet in Kuwait, the top two eligible shooters (maximum one per country) in individual Olympic shooting events secure Paris quotas for their respective national teams.
The National Olympic Committees (NOC) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games and athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.