New Delhi, 14 January: Vijayveer Sidhu earned India 17th quota in shooting for the Paris Olympics and the second in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event after making the final in the event at the Asian Shooting Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia on Saturday.

Anish Bhanwala obtained the other at the 2023 Asian Championships in Changwon.

With a score of 577, Vijayveer Sidhu finished fifth in qualifying to make the cut for the final. Kazakh shooter Nikita Chiryukin, Korea’s Song Jong-Ho, Sukjin Hong and Jaekyoon Lee and Japan’s Dai Yoshioka were the other shooters who made the medal round.

At the Jakarta meet, the top two eligible shooters (maximum one per country) in individual Olympic shooting events secure Paris  spots for their national teams. A country can obtain a maximum of two quotas in any one event

South Korea had already secured their full allocation of two quotas in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event and Japan’s Dai Yoshioka had earlier obtained a quota at last year’s World Championships. Thus, the two available slots automatically went to Kazakhstan’s Nikita Chiryukin and India’s Vijayveer Sidhu even before the opening shot was fired in the final.

However, as it turned out, the technicality would have hardly made a difference in the quota allocation as Nikita Chiryukin won the gold medal with a score of 32 in the final while  Vijayveer claimed silver with 28.

 Vijayveer's compatriot Adarsh Singh and Gurpreet Singh couldn’t qualify for the final while Arpit Goel shot in the qualifiers for ranking points only (RPO).

Meanwhile in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event, India registered a double podium finish with Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey bagging the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

South Korea’s Eunseo Lee took the gold with a score of 462.5 while Sift Kaur Samra shot 460.6. Ashi Chouksey tallied 447.0. Anjum Moudgil, the third Indian shooter who qualified for the final, narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with 436.3.

While Paris 2024 quotas were on offer in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event as well, India had already secured their full allocation of two earlier through Samra and Shriyanka Sadangi.

The trio of Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey and Anjum Moudgil also bagged the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions team gold medal for India with a combined score of 1760. Kazakhstan and South Korea completed the podium in the team event.

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.