Lucky number 17: India win Paris Olympics shooting quota before a shot is fired

In the months leading up to the Asian Olympic Qualifying tournament, Vijayveer Sidhu prepared himself for all possible scenarios so that when the time came to stake his claim for a quota place, he’d have left nothing to chance.

As it turned out, it didn’t have to worry too much – the young Indian shooter was awarded the quota for the Paris Olympics even before the first shot was fired in the final of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. With the four other finalists not eligible for a quota, Sidhu – who shot his way to a silver medal – ensured an Olympic spot for the country.

With this, India’s quota tally in shooting for the Paris Games, from July 26 to August 11, surged to 17 and the country has won 15 out of the 16 berths on offer in rifle and pistol events.

Many congratulations to Vijayveer Sidhu for clinching SILVER 🥈in 25m rapid-fire pistol event and securing India's 17th Olympic Quota in Shooting.

My best wishes to you, may you go from strength to strength and bring glory to the nation. pic.twitter.com/21ireXOXQH

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) January 13, 2024

“It’s the result of hard work and consistency over the years and I am glad that I could win the Paris Olympics quota place for India,” Sidhu told The Indian Express from Jakarta, “As an experienced shooter now, one does not do many technical changes but the aim is to identify mistakes and work on them. And that was my focus. Quota or no quota, our aim is always to shoot our best and hopefully that’s the case in the coming months too.”

The Indian shooting team came into the Asian Qualifiers having bagged 13 Paris Olympics quotas including five in pistol events. This week saw them adding four more quotas – all of them in pistol events.

Varun Tomar and Esha Singh had bagged a quota each in men’s and women’s 10m Air Pistol respectively while Rhythm Sangwan earned one in women’s 25m Pistol event.

With Sidhu getting India the second Paris quota after Haryana youngster Anish Bhanwala secured one last year in the Asian Championships last October, it will be the first time that Indian 25m Rapid Fire shooters will compete in the Olympics since Rio Olympics, where Gurpreet Singh finished seventh.

Sidhu, whose twin brother Udhayveer Sidhu is also a multiple junior world cup and world championships medallist, will now be eying the two Olympic trials in May this year to get a seat on the flight to Paris.

“I had just started shooting when Vijay (Kumar) sir won the Olympic medal (at the London Olympics). I keep meeting him at the Delhi Range and we have little conversations,” Sidhu said. “My focus will be to rest and recover and do selective quality training in the coming months. One cannot prepare only for trials – the Olympics are the target for me, like other shooters. The best thing for me is that the coaching staff including chief coach Ronak Pandit and foreign coach Munkhbayar Dorjsuren have faith in me,” said Sidhu.

Indian pistol shooters can add one more quota with India having only one women’s 10m Air Pistol quota through Esha Singh. The chance will come through the world qualifiers later this year or the world rankings.

Chief pistol coach Ronak Pandit believes the shooters need to fine-tune and aim to peak in Olympic trials as well Paris. Sidhu, who had two ISSF World Cup final appearances under his belt including one silver medal, had shot 577 in the qualification on Saturday, a score which chief pistol coach Ronak Pandit believes both Sidhu and Bhanwala need to improve.

“We did not have a 25m Rapid Fire quota for Tokyo and Anish and Vijayveer have ensured that this time, we will have two shooters in the discipline in Paris. The most important thing for the shooters will be to ensure a minimum difference between their training and competition scores,” Pandit said. “Both Anish and Vijayveer shoot close to 590 in training and the focus now has to reduce the gap between the scores of 577-583 and 590 in competitions. Rapid Fire is a complex event but we have to prepare and be ready for whatever improvement we can do.”

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