India recorded their best-ever finish at an ISSF World Championship, winning 34 medals at the conclusion of the 2022 ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship in Cairo.

Combined with the four medals India won at the World Shotgun Championships in Osijek, Croatia, India finished second behind China with 38 medals.

At the 2018 ISSF World Championships in Changwon, Korea, India finished third overall with 27 medals.

From the World Championships this term, India bagged three Paris 2024 Olympic quotas compared to the two Tokyo 2020 quota places they won at the 2018 Changwon edition.

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Meet Rudrankksh Patil: 18-year-old shooter, researcher, India’s 10m air rifle world champion

From the perspective of Olympic events, India had a silver at the Changwon Worlds - in the women’s 10m air rifle event - while this year the record was improved to gold, won by Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in the men’s 10m air rifle competition. Besides the quota won by Patil, Swapnil Kusale won a quota in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions, a first for India in the event at the Worlds, and Bhowneesh Mendiratta won a quota in the men’s Trap in Osijek.

India’s final competitor in Cairo, Omkar Singh, shot a 578 to finish 13th in the men’s 25m centre fire pistol event on Tuesday. Former Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany shot 588 to win gold.

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Some other notable performances in Olympic events, which featured many new faces, saw Rhythm Sangwan finish fifth in the women’s 25m pistol, Anjum Moudgil finish sixth in the Women’s 3P and Shiva Narwal finish eighth in the 10m Air Pistol Men. Sangwan and Moudgil came the closest to winning Olympic quotas. The youngster paid the price for missing all five of her shots in the final series of the ranking match with a medal chance and quota within her grasps. For Moudgil, it was a slow start that proved costly as she rallied well in the end but missed out on a quota by one place.

Kusale, while he did well to win the quota spot, also paid the price for one bad last shot when a place in the gold medal match seemed all but assured.

Esha Singh emerged the most successful Indian shooter in the junior events with three gold and one silver medal followed by Sameer Gulia who won two silver and two bronze medals. Patil, Ramita and Samrat Rana also won two gold medals each and Vijayveer Sidhu defended his 25m standard pistol men junior title while also picking up a bronze medal.

Here’s the list of India’s medal winners at the Shotgun and Rifle/Pistol World Championships:

Skeet Women Junior - Areeba Khan - Silver

Trap Team Men Junior - Arya Vansh Tyagi / Shardul Vihaan / Shapath Bharadwaj - Gold

Skeet Mixed Team Junior - Bhavtegh Singh Gill / Muffaddal Zahra Deesawala - Bronze

Skeet Team Men Junior - Bhavtegh Singh Gill / Abhay Singh Sekhon / Ritu Raj Bundela - Bronze

25m Pistol Team Women Junior - Esha Singh / Vibhuti Bhatia / Naamya Kapoor -  Bronze

10m Air Rifle Men - Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil - Gold

25m Pistol Women Junior - Esha Singh - Gold

25m Standard Pistol Men Junior - Vijayveer Sidhu - Gold

25m Standard Pistol Men Junior - Sameer Gulia - Bronze

25m Standard Pistol Women Junior - Tejaswini - Bronze

25m Standard Pistol Mixed Team Junior - Manvi Jain / Sameer Gulia - Silver

25m Standard Pistol Mixed Team Junior - Payal Khatri / Vijay Dudhane - Bronze

10m Air Rifle Team Men - Rudrankksh Patil / Arjun Babuta / Kiran Ankush Jadhav - Gold

10m Air Rifle Team Women - Mehuli Ghosh / Elavenil Valarivan / Meghana Sajjanar - Bronze

10m Air Pistol Team Women - Palak / Rhythm Sangwan / Yuvika Tomar - Silver

50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Men Junior - Sartaj Tiwana / Surya Pratap Singh / Pankaj Mukheja - Bronze

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Junior - Sameer Gulia - Silver

10m Air Pistol Team Women Junior - Esha Singh / Shikha Narwal / Varsha Singh - Gold

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Team Men Junior - Sameer Gulia / Udhayveer Sidhu / Adarsh Singh - Bronze

10m Air Rifle Team Women Junior - Ramita / Nancy / Tilottama Sen - Gold

10m Air Rifle Team Men Junior - K.Sabari Raj Ravishankar /Vidit Jain / Divyansh Singh Panwar - Gold

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Mixed Team Junior - Payal Khatri / Adarsh Singh - Gold

25m Standard Pistol Men - Vijayveer Sidhu - Bronze

25m Standard Pistol Women - Rhythm Sangwan - Silver

50m Pistol Men Junior - Abhinav Choudhary - Silver

50m Pistol Women Junior - Divanshi - Gold

50m Pistol Women Junior - Varsha Singh - Silver

50m Pistol Women Junior - Tiyana - Bronze

10m Air Rifle Women Junior - Ramita - Gold

10m Air Rifle Women Junior - Tilottama Sen - Bronze

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Mixed Team - Simranpreet Kaur Brar / Anish - Silver

10m Air Pistol Men Junior - Sagar Dangi - Silver

10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Junior - Nancy / S.K.Sabari Raj Ravishankar - Bronze

10m Air Pistol Team Men Junior - Sagar Dangi / Samrat Rana / Varun Tomar - Gold

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Junior - Esha Singh / Samrat Rana - Gola

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Junior - Shikha Narwal / Sagar Dangi - Silver

25m Pistol Team Women - Manu Bhaker / Rhythm Sangwan / Abhidnya Ashok Patil - Silver

50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Men - Aishwary Tomar / Swapnil Kusale / Niraj Kumar - Bronze