Vivaan Kapoor Secures Silver Medal at ISSF World Championship, Boosting India's Olympic Quota
Vivaan Kapoor's Silver Medal Achievement
Doha [Qatar], November 12: At the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship, Vivaan Kapoor earned a silver medal in the men's trap event on Thursday. This accomplishment marks India's third quota place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games during the ongoing championship.
Vivaan's success follows earlier quota achievements by fellow shooters Jaypal Malviya and Niraj Kumar in Doha. Jaypal initiated India's LA28 quota journey by securing silver in the men's 10m air pistol on November 5. Niraj contributed the second quota place with a bronze in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions on Wednesday, as reported.
Competing at the Lusail Shooting Complex, Vivaan matched Kuwait's Abdulrahman Alfaihan at the top of the leaderboard with 29 hits in the final. In a tense shoot-off for the gold medal, Alfaihan narrowly defeated the Indian shooter 3-2. The bronze medal went to China's Qi Ying, who achieved 22 hits.
Earlier in the competition, two Indian shooters advanced to the medal round after a seven-way tie at 120 out of 125 in qualification. Vivaan qualified in sixth place after hitting six targets in the qualification shoot-off, with scores of 25, 24, 24, 24, and 23. His teammate, Udaivir Singh Jaijee, also scored 120 (25, 24, 24, 24, 23) and secured the eighth qualifying spot after a sudden-death shoot-off (3+0). Udaivir finished sixth in the final with 11 hits, just behind Great Britain's Nathan Hales.
In the men's trap team event, the Indian trio of Vivaan (120), Udaivir (120), and Zoravar Singh Sandhu (114) narrowly missed a medal, finishing fourth. India achieved a combined score of 354 across five rounds (73, 68, 72, 72, 69), tying with Poland and Czechia for silver and bronze, respectively. However, India was placed fourth due to a lower final-round score. Kuwait claimed the team gold with 356 points, while Zoravar ranked 55th in the individual qualification standings.
India also celebrated success in the men's 25m center fire pistol event, with Ankur Goel winning an individual silver medal, scoring 583-19x, including 292 in the precision stage and 291 in the rapid stage. Latvia's Ernests Erbs took gold with 588-24x, while Czechia's Jindrich Dubovy secured bronze with 582-26x.
Additionally, Ankur teamed up with Amanpreet Singh and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu to clinch the men's 25m center fire pistol team bronze with a total score of 1727-57x. Amanpreet finished ninth individually with 578-19x, while Rajkanwar placed 23rd with 566-19x. Ukraine won the team gold with 1735-47x, followed by the Republic of Korea in second place with 1731-46x.
After Thursday's events, India stands second in the overall medal tally with 13 medals, including two gold, seven silver, and four bronze. China leads with 27 medals (13 gold, six silver, eight bronze), while the Republic of Korea is in third place with 10 medals (two gold, five silver, three bronze).