Olympics 2024: Maheshwari Chauhan, Vijayveer, Anish Bhanwala miss out on finals

Indian shooters Maheshwari Chauhan, Vijayveer Sidhu, and Anish Bhanwala competed fiercely but fell short of qualifying for the finals at the French National Shooting Centre in Chateauroux.

In the Skeet Women’s event, Maheshwari Chauhan had a promising start, advancing to the final round in fifth place after a strong 25 in round four.

However, her performance in round five, where she scored 22, brought her total to 118, placing her in 14th overall. The final qualification spot was claimed with a score of 120.

In the 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol Men’s event, Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala showed impressive skills across the qualification stages but could not secure a finals berth.

Both shooters excelled in the stage-1, each scoring 293 to enter the stage 2 in fifth and seventh positions.

Despite strong start in the stage 2—Vijayveer with scores of 100 and 98, and Anish with 99 and 97—they ended up in ninth and 13th places respectively because of poor final series.

The top six shooters advanced to the finals.

Raiza Dhillon, also competing in her first Olympics, finished 23rd in the women's skeet event with a total of 113 over five rounds.

Looking ahead, India still has a chance for medals in the Shotgun events, with Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka set to compete in the Mixed Team Skeet event, which will debut at these Games.

So far, India's shooting team has earned three bronze medals in Paris.