Shotgun shooting is one of the most competitive disciplines of shooting in terms of scoring. This is the only outdoor event in the sport where athletes have to take a certain amount of shots on a flying object.
This discipline has two major events, skeet shooting and trap shooting. Paris Olympics will host the 24th edition of trap shooting while it will be the 15th edition in the skeet shooting. The shotgun event is scheduled from July 29 to 5.
Italy is the most successful country in the shotgun history of the Olympics despite of the fact that they failed to win a single gold medal last time, in Tokyo. They always have very tough competition from their rivals USA in major tournaments.
This year, India is sending a contingent of six shotgun shooters, two male and four female shooters. They will take part in all the five medal events of shotguns at the Olympics for the first time.
Medal Chances
India shotgun has shown a good improved performance during the Paris Olympics qualification period and increased the number of quotas to three times in comparison to the last edition.
Despite that, there aren’t many Indian shooters who will be entering the tournament as medal favorites.
Here, The Bridge is highlighting the probable chances that the Indian shotgun team can end their 20-year-long wait for an Olympic medal:
Mixed skeet team: India won the quota for the mixed team skeet event at the Paris Olympics. The pairing of Anantjeet Singh and Maheshwari Chauhan are the ones who will be competing for India at this event.
They have the best chance of winning a medal for India as both of them have a good international experience which can help them reach the top four. However, they will face a big challenge from the USA, Italian, and Slovakian teams in the qualification round.
Women’s Skeet: India is not among the favorites to medal in any of the individual events but still there is a chance that the women’s Skeet event gave them a surprise.
India has two representations in this category, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari, which eventually improved the probability of making it to the finals. They have also shown good performance in the last year.
However, it is not that easy for them to pull off a surprise as they need to have two outstanding days of qualification rounds with great consistency among a solid field of 29 shooters.
Squad
Trap:- Prithviraj Tondaiman, Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh
Skeet: – Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Raiza Dhillon, Maheshwari Chauhan
Schedule
29th July
Trap Men’s Qualification Day 1 (75 shots) – 12:30 PM IST
30th July
Trap Men’s Qualification Day 2 (75 shots) – 1:00 PM IST
Trap Women’s Qualification Day 1 (75 shots) – 1:00 PM IST
Trap Men’s Final – 7:00 PM IST
31st July
Trap Women’s Final – 7:00 PM IST
2nd August
Skeet Men’s Qualification Day 1 (75 shots) – 12:30 PM IST
3rd August
Skeet Men’s Qualification Day 2 (75 shots) – 1:00 PM
Skeet Women’s Qualification Day 1 (75 shots) – 1:00 PM
Skeet Men’s Final – 7:00 PM IST
4th August
Skeet Women’s Qualification Day 2 (75 shots) – 1:00 PM
Skeet Women’s Final – 7:00 PM IST
5th August
Skeet Mixed Team Qualification – 12:30 PM IST
Skeet Mixed Team Final – 6:30 PM IST
History of Indian shotgun at Olympics
India doesn’t have a very rich history in shotgun shooting as they always struggled to make it to the final. On the other hand, India has one shotgun medal, which was also their first shooting medal at the Olympics.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was the first and the only shooter from India to win a shotgun medal at the Olympic Games. He clinched the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s double trap event.
However, since then, India has going through a tough phase in this sport as no Indian was able to leave his mark at any event in the last four Olympics.