2024 Paris Olympics: Bhowneesh Mendiratta becomes first Indian athlete to qualify for the next Olympics

Bhowneesh Mendiratta has given the country the first 2024 Paris Olympics quota during the ISSF Shotgun World Championship. 23-year-old Bhowneesh finished fourth in the Men's Trap event and missed out on a medal at the ongoing Shotgun World Championships in Osijek, Croatia on Wednesday. But he managed to get India an Olympic quota.

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Bhowneesh scored 24 out of 25 hits in the ranking match and reached the final. As soon as he reached the medal match of four players, he already achieved the ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, in the final, he missed out on winning a medal by a narrow margin. He was the first shooter to be dismissed after the first 15 hits in the 35-shot medal bout. It was an outstanding effort by the Indian youngster, whose only senior medal at the world level before was a team silver at the Changwon World Cup earlier this year.

A total of four quotas were to be given on Wednesday in the men's and women's trap categories. World number 144 Bhowneesh of Faridabad won the Paris Olympics quota with 24 hits out of 25 in the second-ranking round. At the same time, Prithviraj Tondaiman of India missed out on making it to the shoot-off and finished 22nd. Whereas none of the shooters from the women's category could make it to the medal match. Neeru was 29th, Shreyasi Singh 35th, and Manisha Keer 61st and could not secure the quota.

Eight shooters qualified for two ranking rounds in the 154-strong field. There was an 11-way shoot-off for seventh and eighth place. Bhowneesh lined up with American Derrick Mein, world number three, Briton Aaron Heading and Qatari R.H.SA Al-Althba, in a second ranking round match. Derrick Mein finished second, while Al-Athba and Heading finished sixth and eighth respectively in qualification.

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2024 Paris Olympics will start from 26 July to 11 August. The first goal in front of the Indian players is to get the maximum quota for here. India had a spectacular Tokyo Olympics as they finished 48th here with seven medals. However, in these games, the country did not get a single medal from shooting and the team of 14 players returned empty-handed. However, India is currently joint fourth in the medal tally with one gold medal.