Shooting, Paris Olympics 2024 Highlights, August 1: Swapnil Kusale wins bronze; Sift, Anjum fail to make 50m rifle 3 positions final

Not many would have predicted a 50m rifle 3 positions medal from India. The fact that it was the unheralded Swapnil Kusale who did it makes the moment all the more beautiful. India has historically not been great in this discipline. But today Kusale seemed to be in a league of his own. It was unfortunate that both Sift and Moudgil exited the qualification in the women’s division of the same event, but we could be a bit more hopeful given two strong contenders in Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh will be in action in the 25m range tomorrow. Until then, sayonara!

A horrendous Standing for Sift. She shoots 93 and 94 that would see her finish 31st in a field of 32 shooters! Her 584-26x will fetch her the 18th place.

Anjum has finished with 584-26x, with an average shot worth 9.733. Sift is further down the leaderboard. The medal cut-off average stands at 9.804 now.

Moudgil drops three points off her first eight shots. Sift drops three further points in the first four attempts. India goes down a slippery slope.

Changeover time kicks in. High time the Indians pull weight. The difference between Moudgil and leader Sagen Maddalena is eight points. Four points would have seen her in the eighth place.

And Sift has misfired a couple of times again! She merely gets to 96. She is 28th. Moudgil shoots a 97 again to get to 194 in Prone. She is ranked 21st.

In the first prone series, Moudgil scores 97. Sift gets 99. They are 18th and 25th, respectively.

Sift with a 97. Things are not looking good. She is 23rd. The seven-minute changeover time begins.

Moudgil with an impressive recovery in the second series of kneeling. She gets a 99 to move up to 10th. 

Moudgil scores 97 (17th) in the first series, Sift gets 96 (28th). Not the best of start for the Indians. 

Jenny Stene of Norway scored 596 in September 2022. That is the Qualification World Record. Han Jiayu of China equalised the mark in Munich 2024.

1437 is Sift’s bib number. Moudgil wears the number 1435.

Sift starts from firing point 28. Moudgil is occupying lane no. 41.

50m rifle 3 positions must be fired in the order: Kneeling, Prone and Standing. A combined 15-minute preparation and sighting time is provided before the match. A total of 60 shots are fired in an allowed duration of an hour and 30 minutes. The changeover time between kneeling to prone is seven minutes. From prone to standing, nine minutes of changeover time is given.

Sift Kaur Samra and Anjum Moudgil will be in action in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions qualification which begins at 3:30 pm.

Kusale: It was tense but I am glad I could get a bronze for India. I just did what I have been doing all these years. I had some ‘keywords’ in my mind. Just focused on my breathing. I am excited. Maybe it is yet to sink in but remaining calm has been a way of life for some time now.

(Picture credit: Ritu Raj Konwar/The Hindu)

And silver it is for Kulish! Meanwhile, what a year this has been for Yukun. The Chinese broke the World Record twice in two days back in May in Baku and now he takes the Olympic gold. 

Kusale takes the bronze medal despite hitting a 10.0. His total score reads 451.4. Serhiy Kulish heaves a sigh of relief! The Ukrainian will take home at least silver.

The World No. 1 Privratsky exits despite hitting a 10.3! Medal assured for India.

Hegg leaves the final in fifth place after leading for an extended period in kneeling and prone.

Lucas Bernard Denis Kryzs is sixth. He shoots a 9.9 to accumulate 418.9.

Serbia’s Lazar Kovacevic exits the competition in the 8th place with a score of 407.4. Polish Bartnik is 7th with 408.8.

A 10.6 and 10.3 sees Kusale jump momentarily into the second place. But the next shots are a 9.1 and a 10.1 and he is back to fourth. A 10.3 again and he moves up to third.

After the first series of five, Yukun has displaced Jon-Hermann Hegg from the top spot. Kusale has moved fourth with 51.1.

A 9.5 from Kusale to start things. The average score in standing will be lower than how it is in prone, because in the latter your body is the most stable. The target too is a long way away.

10 shots to go for the first two eliminations. Which two athletes will be the first to be eliminated?

A 10.5 and two 10.4s see Kusale jump up to the fourth spot again. But yet another 10.2 sees him lose his footing and slip back to fifth. An eight-minute changeover time before Standing begins.

A 10.8 from Kusale wakes up the Indian crowd in the stands. He follows that up with a 10.2, though, losing the 4th place he only held momentarily. He eventually finishes fifth after the series with 52.2. The World Record Holder Liu Yukun has crept up slowly but steadily to the second spot now.

The World No. 1 Privratsky starts off with a perfect score! Kusale gets three 10.5s and two 10.6s. He moves up to 5th.

All the shooters are ready to shoot some sighters ahead of the final competition shots.

The seven-minute changeover time ahead of prone begins.

We are done with kneeling. Kusale registers 10.5, 10.4, 10.3, 10.2 and 10.2. He will finish this round in the 6th place.

Although Kusale hits a 9.9 in the second series, he recovers with four 10-plus scores. His total is 101.7.

Poland’s Tomasz Bartnik hits a 10.9 off his last shot in the first series. The audience applauds the feat with raucous cheering. Kusale finishes with 50.8 in the first series. He is 7th. 

‘The Brigadier’ ceremony is done, where a ceremonial red baton is tapped thrice on the matting to signal the start of the competition. We are underway! Not the best of starts for Kusale with a 9.6.

Swapnil Kusale’s name is announced. He waves coolly at the crowd, which responds with a loud cheer.

The 50m rifle 3 positions final consists of 15 match shots in each position: kneeling, prone and standing, fired in that order. It starts with three series of five shots in kneeling with a time limit of 200 seconds per series. After a seven-minute changeover and sighting time, finalists fire three series of five shots again in prone with a time limit of 150 seconds per series. Next, in standing, finalists fire two five-shot series in 250 seconds each after an eight-minute changeover time.

The two lowest-ranking finalists are eliminated after the two standing series. The final continues after that with five single shots in standing, each in 50 seconds, with the lowest ranking athlete being eliminated after each shot until two athletes remain to fire the last shot and decide the gold medal winner. There are a total of 45 shots in the final.

13:00 - 50m rifle 3 positions men’s final (Swapnil Kusale)

15:30 - 50m rifle 3 positions women’s qualification (Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil)

The live telecast of the Paris Olympics will be available on Sports18 while the live streaming will be available on JioCinema in India from July 26 to August 11. Only the finals of the shooting events will be televised.

While you wait for the action to begin at the range, take a look at the list of Indians who are set to be in action at the Paris Olympics today.

Paris 2024 Olympics, Day 6: Indians in action today — August 1 schedule, full list of events, venues, timings in IST, live streaming info

On August 1, Indian athletes will be in action across multiple disciplines such as athletics, badminton, shooting, archery and boxing. 

Lock ‘n load! It’s almost time to climb aboard the hype train to Châteauroux, where 21 Indian shooters will take on the mission of going up against 321 of the world’s best to claim the ultimate prize — an Olympic medal.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announcing the squad way ahead of July 8 — the Paris 2024 entry deadline — felt like the calm before the storm. The shooters have had an acclimatisation and a hard-training camp at Volmerange-Les-Mines, followed by a two-week break while waiting for Judgement Day.

India has never had more shooters representing the country at the Olympics. Tokyo 2020 saw a previous best of 15. This time, among the 81 participating nations and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) Refugee Team, India will send the most shooters to France, tying with China, followed by the Republic of Korea, which has 16.

It is mostly a new-look squad except for familiar faces in pistol star Manu Bhaker and rifle wielders Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan. Having waded through the choppy waters of Tokyo, they will be up and running soon for a second shot at glory.

While those who have already performed on the biggest stage would believe that past experience will help them fare better this time, the debutants may be thankful for not having to carry any baggage from previous editions.

Let’s do a quick recap. After returning empty-handed from Tokyo, Indian shooters experienced a curious mix of highs and lows in the subsequent years. Amid developments like numerous rule changes and overhauls in the coaching set-up, several prominent names such as Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Apurvi Chandela, and Rahi Sarnobat faded from scorecards for different reasons. A change of guard brought newcomers like Sift Kaur Samra and Sarabjot Singh to the forefront. Others, like Bhaker, entered recovery mode, deeply affected by the media scrutiny. However, she appears to have bounced back just in time.

One of the many factors that will work in favour of the Indians this time is the absence of Russia from the roster owing to the strict qualification restrictions in place after the latter invaded Ukraine.

Although the IOC stated that, as of July 13, 15 AINs (Athlètes Individuels Neutres/Individual Neutral Athletes) with Russian passports had qualified for the Summer Games in Paris (with a maximum of 55 eligible to make it), none of them happens to be shooters.

​READ THE FULL PREVIEW BY SANTADEEP DEY HERE.​