ISSF World Shooting C'ships 2026: What went wrong for India? Explained

Indian shooters had a mixed campaign at the recently concluded 2026 ISSF World Championships in Doha, finishing third on the medal tally with a total of 13 medals.

As the first Olympic quota event for the Los Angeles 2028 Games, the 2026 World Championships featured significantly more intense competition than the previous edition.

Only three of India's 13 medals came in Olympic events, which is a sharp 62.5% drop compared to the eight medals India won in the rifle/pistol and shotgun World Championships last year.

Jaypal Malviya (10m air pistol), Niraj Kumar (50m rifle 3 positions) and Vivaan Kapoor (trap) were the three Indian medallists in Olympic events, who also secured quota places for the LA Olympics.

For context, India won two and three medals in Olympic events respectively at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, which suggests that the higher tally in 2025 may have been an outlier.

There could be an argument that everything simply clicked in the previous edition and that India’s realistic ceiling remains two to three medals.

However, this cannot hide India's sub-par performance, given that Indian shooters have performed significantly well on the World Cup circuit over the past two years.

There were encouraging signs in the qualification rounds, with as many as 10 Indian shooters reaching the individual finals, including Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, who qualified in both the 10m air pistol and 25m pistol events.

However, the conversion rate in the finals stood at just 30%, with only three of those appearances resulting in medals, suggesting that Indian shooters still need to improve their composure under pressure.

One of the reasons could be fatigue, as the Indians had a hectic season, starting with the national trials, World Cup and then Asian Games just a month ahead of World C'ships.

Dronacharya Award-winning rifle coach Neha Chavan believes the lower conversion rate may have been influenced by the short gap between the Asian Games and the World Championships.

“Definitely, if the championship had been a couple of weeks later, we might have seen a different result. Maybe we would have had more athletes in the top three,” she told The Bridge.

Pistol squad's second consecutive failure

India had high expectations from its pistol squad, yet this was the second consecutive major tournament in which pistol shooters managed only one medal in individual Olympic events.

At the previous World Championships, five of India’s eight medals in Olympic events had come from pistol. That number has now dropped to just one, showing a significant decline.

The women’s 10m air pistol Individual event proved the biggest disappointment, with India returning empty-handed from both the Asian Games and the World Championships in succession.

Two Indian shooters currently rank inside the world’s top five in women’s air pistol, including Suruchi Phogat in fourth place, yet the country still failed to secure a single medal.

Paris Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker reached the final at both the Asian Games and the World Championships but finished fifth on each occasion. Suruchi, meanwhile, missed the Asian Games final and placed sixth in the World Championships final.

The only medal India won from pistol was in men's air pistol, where Jaypal Malviya, who was competing in just his second international tournament, won a silver medal.

Can India still add more shooting quotas for the LA Olympics?

India secured only three of the 24 available Olympic quotas in Qatar. However, with several quota events still to come over the next two years, the country remains hopeful of crossing the 20-quota mark for Los Angeles 2028.

Nine ISSF quota tournaments, including the 2027 World Rifle/Pistol C'ships and the World Shotgun C'ships, lie ahead. There will also be five Asian C'ships, offering Indian shooters multiple opportunities to claim the remaining quota places.

That said, the inconsistency in form will need to be addressed before the new season begins on both the international circuit and at the domestic level.

This year saw frequent changes in team composition across tournaments. In men’s air pistol, for instance, only one shooter was common to the three-member teams that competed at the Asian Games and the World Championships.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, India had secured 21 quota places in shooting. The aim now will still be to match or beat that number for the Los Angeles 2028 Games.