Indian Shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala Miss Finals at Paris Olympics

Indian shooter Vijayveer Sidhu finished ninth, while Anish Bhanwala finished 13th in the qualification round of the men’s 25 m rapid-fire pistol event at the ongoing Paris Olympics on Sunday, failing to make it to the finals. The 22-year-old Vijayveer totaled 583-26x after completing two stages and was just two points away from being among the top six players who made it to the finals. After stage one, Vijayveer was in the fifth spot and seemed set to finish among the top six, but underwhelming performances in the later stage ended his chances for a medal. Anish was also seventh after stage one but finished in the 13th spot after stage two, with an under-par score of 93 in stage two, taking his tally to 582-22x.

Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon failed to make the cut for the final of the women’s skeet shooting competition at the ongoing Paris Olympics on Sunday. Maheshwari, the current Asian Games bronze medalist, was in contention to finish among the top six players who got the privilege to compete in the medal round at the end of the fourth round. However, after three misses during the final round, she slipped to the 14th spot with a total of 118/125 points. Raiza made up for a bad start on day one of the qualification round on day two, but it was not enough to push her into the top 20, finishing in the 23rd spot with a score of 113/125 points. India’s Anantjeet Singh Naruka also failed to make it to the men’s skeet final.

India has secured three medals in shooting at the Paris 2024 Olympics, all of which are bronze. Manu Bhaker opened the nation’s account with a bronze medal in the women’s 10 m air pistol event, becoming India’s first-ever woman shooter to win an Olympic medal in the event. Following that, Sarabjot Singh and Manu won the bronze medal in the 10 m air pistol (mixed team) event, which was India’s first-ever medal in team shooting. On Thursday, Swapnil Kusale won the bronze medal in the men’s 50 m rifle 3P event at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first Indian shooter to win a medal in the men’s 50 m rifle 3P event. Following Kusale’s historic bronze medal win, the Indian shooting contingent officially delivered its best-ever performance in Olympic history.

Before this, India’s best performance in shooting came at the 2012 London Olympics, with Vijay Kumar winning a silver in the men’s 25 m rapid-fire pistol event and Gagan Narang winning a bronze in the men’s 10 m air rifle event. India’s first-ever shooting medal was earned by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the men’s double trap shooting event when he secured a silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics. This was followed by Abhinav Bindra’s historic gold medal in men’s 10 m air rifle at the Beijing Olympics, which was also the country’s first-ever individual gold medal in any sport.