Five best performers for India in shooting at Paris Olympics 2024

The Indian shooting contingent brought home three bronze medals from Paris Olympics 2024.

India sent its largest delegation to an Olympics when 121 competitors boarded their plane in two batches for Tokyo in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. With the world’s top data and technology company, Gracenote, projecting India to win 19 medals, including four gold, the country had high expectations going into the quadrennial event.

It was the 15-member shooting squad comprising of World Champions were the biggest medal hopefuls but they returned home with disappointment. With India sending a bigger team to Paris Olympics 2024 with 21 of them, the pressure was on them to deliver. From returning with nothing from Tokyo Olympics to being the first contingent to get multiple medals in Paris, shooters proved their mettle with their performances.

Here’s the top five shooters who were splendid with their shooting.

Maheswari Chauhan- Mixed team skeet and women’s skeet

While India won medals in pistol and rifle events, they were hoping get one from Shotgun events as well. Maheswari Chauhan was one of the bright prospects. In the women’s Skeet Individual event, she was brilliant. After the first four series, she was at the fifth place with 96/100 points. But a sub-par final round with 22/25 points meant that she was dropped to 14th place and ultimately missing the finals.

The shooter wanted make amends for her missed opportunity and she joined hands with Anant Jeet Singh Naruka in the Skeet Mixed Team event. The pair faced China in the bronze medal match. It was a tightly fought contest with scores level at the halfway stage.

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: Maheshwari Chauhan-Anantjeet Singh Naruka loses bronze medal match

But Maheswari missed only one target of her remaining targets. The Chinese capitalised on it to take the bronze with a single point lead and leave India at fourth place. Nevertheless, Maheswari’s efforts were commendable.

Arjun Babuta- Men’s 10m air rifle and mixed team 10m air rifle

After an impressive start in the junior competitions, Arjun Babuta‘s career at the senior level was delayed due to a career-threatening back problem which ruled him out of action for three years. COVID and lockdown forced him to miss yet another season. But Arjun was determined and once he was fit, he was at the shooting range. His determination got him to Paris Olympics 2024.

Babuta and Ramita Jindal finshed sixth in mixed team event with a score of 628.7. One more point would have made them eligible for the bronze medal playoffs. Babuta was determined to make it up in the individual event.

It was the same determination that got him into the finals of Men’s 10m Rifle event having missed out in the Mixed Team event. It wasn’t an easy finals as he had to compete with World Champions and Olympic Champions. The 25-year-old’s precision kept him for a top-two finish for most part of the finals.

But when it mattered the most, he fumbled with a 9.5 which was his lowest in the final which resulted in a fourth place finish. He along with the entire 1.4 billion would be hope that his determination will get him an Olympic medal in 2028 at Los Angeles.

Sarabjot Singh- Mixed team 10m air pistol and men’s 10m air pistol

Sarabjot Singh who won bronze medal along with Manu Bhaker in the Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol event could have repeated the feat of her partner. But he missed qualifying for the finals as he had 16 inner 10s and Germany’s Robin Walter had 17 after both were tied with 577 points. Walter made the qualification as the eighth and final shooter as he had more inner 10s than Singh.

It would have broken anyone as Sarabjot had done everything to qualify yet he didn’t find a place in the finals. But, he is not the one to be down after that.

Coming from a farming family, he knew he has to work everyday to get the yield which is what he did along with Manu in the Mixed Team event. He started off slowly during qualification but bettered himself to as the duo qualified for the Bronze medal match.

In the shoot out for the bronze medal, both were unstoppable as the Indian pair dominated the proceedings. With the duo requiring one shot to win, Manu suffered a slight dip in her score but Sarabjot stepped up to seal the game and the bronze medal.

Swapnil Kusale- Men’s 50m rifle 3P

A child produgy in shooting, he balanced his career alongside working as a ticket collector in Indian Railways. This is not the story of MS Dhoni but of Swapnil Kusale, the latest sensation in Indian shooting. Competing in one of the toughest events in shooting, 50m Rifle 3 Position, Kusale wanted to make a statement. He became the first Indian to qualify for the finals of this event.

The finals is a story in itself as he was reeling at sixth position at the end of first stage of shooting, kneeling position. He stepped up in the next stage which is prone position and moved to fifth place. It was down to the most difficult, the standing position. The Champion in him came to the fore as his precision was better than everyone which rocketed him to the Bronze medal. It was a comeback to be remebered for ages.

Manu Bhaker- Women’s 10m air pistol, mixed team 10m air pistol and 25m pistol

Manu Bhaker turned out to be not only the best shooter but also recorded the best performance by an Indian since indepedence as she won two bronze medals. It wasn’t an easy journey for Manu, who suffered a pistol snag at Tokyo Olympics in 2020 which ruined her medal chances. But there was no stopping her at Paris Olympics 2024 in women’s 10m air pistol individual event and in the mixed team event.

She was clinical in the qualification round and at the finals which had so many ebbs and flows, she kept her calmness to shoot down two medals for the nation.

Bhaker won India’s first medal a bronze at Paris Olympics 2024 in women’s 10m air pistol. Two days later, she teamed up with Sarabjot to again win bronze in mixed team 10m air pistol event.

But Bhaker was done yet as in the 25m Rapid Pistol event, she missed a historic third medal by a single point. It was a heartbreaking loss but the equanimity she showed made the world notice why she was only shooter to win two medals in pistol events at Paris Olympics 2024.

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