ISSF World Championships 2023: India's Akhil Shreoran Clinches 50m Rifle 3 Positions Bronze, Secures Olympics 2024 Quota

Shooter Akhil Sheoran clinched a bronze medal in the men's 50 m rifle 3 positions event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship being held in Baku, Azerbaijan on Sunday and also secured a 2024 Paris Olympics quota for the country in the process. As per the Olympics.com, Akhil was sixth in the medal round after the kneeling series but made a huge comeback during the prone and standing sections to tally a score of 450 and got the podium position. Austria's Alexander Schmirl bagged the gold with 462.6 while the Czech Republic's Petr Nymbursky clinched the silver, scoring 459.2.

Earlier during the qualifying event, Akhil had secured a sixth-place finish with a score of 585 and made it to the eight-man final. Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar secured a 13th-place finish in the qualifying round with 583 points while Niraj secured a 40th-position finish with 577 points. The combined score of the Indian trio, in total 1,745 points, helped them clinch a gold medal in the team event.

The Championship event is a qualifying event for Paris 2024 Olympics, with 48 quotas to the top-tier multi-sport competition up for grabs. The top four finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic individual shooting events will be handed these quotas.

Since Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish, who had finished fourth and Petr Nymbursky had got their quotas earlier, Akhil needed to finish in the top four among the other six-shooters in the final to secure an Olympic quota.

As National Olympic Committees have exclusive authority for representation of their countries at the Olympics, athletes' participation at the Paris event depends on their NOC selection to represent their delegation at the event.

This is India's fifth