Indian shooters ended their ISSF World Championships campaign with the best-ever record of 38 medals, placing them second in the standings behind China.

The combined performance in the Egyptian capital for the rifle/pistol competitions and Osijek, Croatia (where the shotgun worlds was held) is a much-improved showing from the previous world championships in Changwon, Korea in 2018, when the squad had finished with 27 medals.

India also bagged three 2024 Paris Olympic quotas while they had won two Tokyo Games quota places from the Changwon worlds.

Even from the perspective of Olympic events, India had a silver at the Changwon worlds while this year they improved that to gold, won by Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in the men’s 10m air rifle competition. 

Besides the quota won by Rudrankksh, 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 at the Cairo worlds, Omkar Singh, shot a 578 to finish 13th in the men’s 25m centre fire pistol event. Former Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany shot 588 to win gold.

The Olympic events, which featured many new faces and first-timers, saw Rhythm Sangwan finish fifth in the women’s 25m pistol, Anjum Moudgil sixth in the women’s 3P and Shiva Narwal eighth in the men’s 10m air pistol.

Esha Singh emerged the most successful Indian shooter with three gold and one silver medal followed by Sameer Gulia who bagged two silver and two bronze.

Rudrankksh, Ramita and Samrat Rana also won two gold medals each and Vijayveer Sidhu defended his 25m standard pistol men’s junior title while also picking up a bronze medal. 

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