NRAI to conduct four trials in May to select India's shooting contingent for Paris Olympics 2024; bonus point to be dropped

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is set to conduct four trials in May 2024 to decide the shooting contingent for the Paris Olympics, just two months before the event.

An important part of the trials is that the shooters might not have the benefit of bonus points, which are accumulated through global events like the World Cup and World Championships. The only exception, possibly, will be for shooters who have earned the Olympic quota. They will have a one-point advantage.

According to the latest criteria released by the NRAI for the shotgun event on October 22, 2023:

"All quota winners, irrespective of their ranking in Finals in Quota competitions (such as the World Championships and Asian Championships) will be awarded one bonus point. It will be added to the points accumulated from the Olympic Games Selection Trials (to be held in May)."

The NRAI technical committee will finalize the selection criteria for the trials for all the shooting disciplines in the next couple of days.

Why a sudden change in selection criteria?

Although a player earns an Olympic quota from shooting events like World Championships and Asian Championships, it is awarded to the country and not the individual. This means the NRAI technical committee plays a key role in deciding the final members for the quadrennial event.

Taking a leaf out of India's performance at the Tokyo Olympics, the NRAI doesn't want out-of-form athletes to benefit from bonus points and make their way to Paris. Explaining the change in the selection criteria, NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia stated, as quoted by news agency PTI:

"Before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, there was too much padding of points. And, based on form before Tokyo, shooters who were nowhere close to their best still competed at the Games based on the points they had aggregated (in domestic trials, international competitions like the World Cups, etc).

"Some shooters were ahead by 5-6 points because of this padding and we couldn't do anything as they had the numbers against fellow competitors. So, we are thinking that we should have one realistic performance of the shooter in the present case (Olympic trials)."

He further stated:

"The matter is with the technical committee and it will decide and publish it. We have made it clear that only one bonus point will be given to those who have bagged quota places for the country."

India has so far booked 13 Olympic berths through quotas following the conclusion of the Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea last month. The country bagged six quotas at the continental event.