The National Rifle Association of India has announced a new selection policy for rifle and pistol events for the upcoming Paris Olympics, doing away with the practice of looking at consistency over a four-year Olympic cycle, focussing instead on a shooter’s form in the Olympic year.
The NRAI has decided to introduce ‘Olympic Selection Trials’ (OST) - a series of four competitions to be organised in 2024.
The mean value of the top three scores of a shooter in these contests will be considered towards the Final Average Score (FAS), which will determine qualification for the Olympics. A shooter with an Olympic quota will have 0.33 points added to the FAS.
The new selection process will offer little advantage to a quota winner and will also not take into count the competition and circumstances under which the quota was won. Shooters having less than three scores shall not be considered for a place in the Olympics squad.
In case two shooters end up with equal FAS, the tie will be decided on bonus merit points, which will be awarded based on the number of times an athlete finishes in the top four in the OST finals. A first-place finish grants 0.75 points, 0.5 for second, 0.25 for third and 0.1 points for the fourth place.
“The NRAI firmly believes in shooters earning their place in the Olympic team. The intention is to ensure through this policy of the NRAI, a level, just and fair playing field for those sportspersons who wish to enter the fray for all shooting disciplines,” the shooting body said in the policy statement.
Ahead of the selection process for the Tokyo 2020 squad, the NRAI had stressed the importance of having consistent shooters in the squad, a move which backfired as the shooters came back empty-handed. The association had considered the top five performances in the four-year Olympic cycle leading up to the Games. However, the new rule will allow shooters to hit the reset button ahead of the quadrennial event and help them start afresh.
The top five shooters in each event - as per the national ranking on February 29, 2024 – will be allowed to take part in the OST. Shooters will be eligible to compete only if they have participated in at least two ISSF Championships. They also need to have at least one ranking point on the QROG (Qualification Ranking for the Olympic Games) list.
Additionally, no merit points will be awarded for any world record. A quota holder, now, will gain automatic entry into every World Cup that India takes part in 2023 and 2024. However, a quota winner will be ineligible to feature in any ISSF quota event until India wins all the available quota places in the relevant discipline.
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