Shooting
ISSF World C'Ships 2023: Sift Kaur Samra earns Paris Olympics quota with fith place finish
Sift Kaur Samra is the third Indian shooter to seal Paris 2024 Olympic quota place at the ISSF World Championships in Baku.
Sifat Kaur Samra will be in contention for a medal in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event on Monday evening in Baku, Azerbaijan.
India's Sift Kaur Samra became the sixth shooter to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday after she advanced to the final of the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions at the ISSF World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Sift acquired a fifth-place finish in the qualifying event with a score of 589. She scored a low 192 in the kneeling stage but staged a comeback by accumulating 199 in prone and 198 in standing. Ashi Chouksey finished 29th with a score of 582 and Manini Kaushik 40th with 580.
The 21-year-old Indian shooter sealed her Paris Olympics quota as only three nations - China, Switzerland and India - were eligible to get one quota each in women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions at the Baku Championships. Other finalists USA's Sagen Maddalena, Korea's Lee Eun-seo, Norway's Gir Jeny Stene and Poland's Natalia Kochanska have already earned Paris Olympics quota places from previous events.
In the final, too, played later today, Sift finished fifth with a total score of 429.1. China's Qiongyue Zhang and Han Jiayu bagged the gold and silver medals, while the USA's Maddalena Sagen won the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, this is the third Olympic quota Indian shooters have earned at the ongoing ISSF World Championships.
Earlier, women’s 10m air rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh, 22, secured India's first quota place after winning a bronze medal at the Championships.
28-year-old Akhil Sheoran earned the second quota also after winning a bronze medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions at the World Championships 2023.
In aggregate, India has secured six Olympic quota places in shooting so far.
Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men's trap), Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (men's 10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale (men's 50m rifle 3 positions) are the other Indian shooters who secured Paris Olympics quota places at last year’s ISSF World Championships.
The ISSF World Championship 2023 has a total of 48 Olympic quota places on offer, earmarking the top four performers (with a one-per-country limitation) in each of the twelve Olympic individual shooting events to earn these sought-after quotas.
