-Khelo India
Indian shooters bagged a total of 14 medals (6 Gold and 8 Bronze) to finish overall second in the recently concluded shooting ISSF World Championships 2023 held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The competition also served as an Olympic qualification event and Indian shooters managed to grab four quotas for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the previous edition, India managed to get a total of nine medals (2 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze) and finished sixth in the medal table, in contrast to second this year just behind China.
India had a disappointing start with none of the pistol shooters managing to reach the final in the individual category. However, the duo of Esha Singh and Shiva Narwal won the country’s first gold medal at the ISSF World Championships 2023 in style. They defeated the Turkish team 16-10 in the final to clinch the gold medal.
Mehuli Gosh soon added the cherry on the cake by winning the bronze medal in the Women’s 10M Air rifle event. She also grabbed the first quota for India in the shooting ISSF World Championships 2023. Youngster Tilottama Sen finished with a heartbreaking fourth place in the same event.
Experienced Akhil Sheroan grabbed India’s third medal of the Olympic qualifier event as he won bronze in the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Position. He also grabbed the second quota for India. Apart from them two other quotas were won by Sift Kaur Samra in the Women’s 50 M Rifle 3 Position and Rajeshwari Kumari in Women’s Trap.
Overall, Indian performance was poor in the Pistol category as none of the shooters managed to reach the finals in the individual event. India won three medals in the Olympic Category (1 Gold and 2 Bronze). Major improvement was seen in the 50 M Rifle 3 Position category as India performed extremely well winning three quotas in this category
LIST OF MEDALS
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