Olympic selection trials for shooting to be held at two venues from May 3

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will conduct the 2024 Paris Olympics selection trials for pistol and rifle events from May 3 and 23 onwards in New Delhi and Bhopal respectively.

Representative Image | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will conduct the 2024 Paris Olympics selection trials for pistol and rifle events from May 3 and 23 onwards in New Delhi and Bhopal respectively.

A statement issued by the governing body for shooting sport in the country said that the first set of trials will take place at the Karni Singh ranges here from May 3, while the second set of trials will be held at Bhopal from May 23.

A total of four trials of two sets each will be held and the best three scores will be considered for arriving at the Final Average Score (FAS) to select the squad for the Olympics.

READ | With World Cup final bronze under his belt and Paris Olympics looming, Anish Bhanwala believes he’s closer to shooting bullseye

As per the amended criteria for selecting the squad for Paris, those who have earned Olympic quota places for the country in fire-arm events (50m rifle and 25m pistol) will have two bonus points added to their FAS, while in air gun events (10m air rifle and air pistol), one point will be added to their FAS.

Earlier this month, the NRAI amended its 2022 policy, formulated post the 2020 Tokyo Olympics debacle.

The policy is based on each shooter getting a Final Average Score (FAS), which will be computed by taking the average of the top-three Olympic Selection Trial scores plus the quota bonus point, or points -- whichever is applicable as per event -- to arrive at FAS.

The new policy made in 2022, and subsequently amended on November 15 this year, has done away with the bagful of points Olympic quota winners, Asian Games, World Championships, World Cups and Asian Championships medallists used to get prior to the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The NRAI has also fixed the eligibility criteria for shooters to compete in the May 3 and 23 trials.

As per the criteria, all Olympic quota holders/deemed quota holders of an event, athletes whose domestic ranking is 1-3 and have participated in two ISSF Championships, besides a few other categories, will be eligible to participate in the Olympic selection trials.

A ‘deemed quota holder’ is one who was eligible to win a quota but was not awarded as India had already earned a maximum of two quotas.

A country can earn a maximum of only two Olympic quota places per event in shooting sport.