Akhil Sheoran won a bronze medal in the 50m rifle 3 positions event at the Shooting World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday and in the process sealed a Paris Olympics quota for India.

Akhil had finished sixth in qualifying with a score of 585 to make the eight-man final. Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar was 13th in qualifying with 583 while Niraj Kumar was 40th with 577. The combined score of the trio, however, secured the gold in the team event.

In the Individual medal round Akhil was sixth after the kneeling series but made a good comeback in the prone and standing sections to take the score of 450 and made it to the podium. Austria’s Alexander Schmirl won the gold with 462.6 while the Czech Republic’s Petr Nymbursky bagged the silver, scoring 459.2.

Since Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish, who finished fourth, and Petr Nymbursky had already secured Olympic quotas earlier, Akhil Sheoran only needed to finish in the top four among the other six shooters in the final to secure a Paris 2024 quota.

This was India’s fifth Paris quota in shooting. Mendiratta (trap), reigning world champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale ( 50m rifle 3 positions) won Olympic quotas for India at last year’s World Championships. Mehuli Ghosh secured another in the women’s 10m air rifle at Baku on Sunday.

Since a country can only field two shooters in any individual event, Akhil and Swapnil Kusale make sure India have completed their quota in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions at Paris.

Earlier in the day, Rhythm Sangwan made the finals of the women’s 25m pistol event but could only finish eighth. Tokyo Olympian Manu Bhaker (22nd in qualifying with 580) and Esha Singh (16th in qualifying with 581) failed to make the final cut. However, the trio together tallied 1744 to claim the gold medal in the team event. Chinese Taipei and China won the silver and bronze, respectively.

India have now won seven medals – four gold and three bronze – at the ISSF World Championships in Baku so far.

The World Championship is a qualifying event for the Olympics. A total of 48 Olympic quotas are on offer with the top four finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic individual shooting events

As National Olympic Committees (NOC) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their country at Paris.