Picture Credit: Twitter

Picture Credit: Twitter

Indian Air Rifle shooter Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil has clinched India’s second Paris Olympics 2024 quota as he won the gold in 10m Air Rifle at the ongoing ISSF World Shooting Championship in Cairo. Patil follows Bhowneesh Mendiratta, who claimed the first spot in the men’s trap. However, this would be India’s first qualification in the Air Rifle category.


Rudrankksh’s teammate, Arjun Babuta missed out on the qualification round whereas Kiran Jadhav finished eighth with a score of 154.2 in the eight-man final. A total of 32 Olympic quotas were available in Cario. Four quotas in men's and women’s disciplines will be available in each 10m air rifle, 50m rifle 3 positions, and 10m air pistol events. 


Rudrankksh Patil has now become the second Indian man after Abhinav Bindra in 2006 to take home the 10m air rifle world championship. He also is India’s sixth shooting world champion after Bindra, Tejaswini Sawant, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Om Prakash Mitherval and Ankur Mittal.


Talking about how Patil clinched the title, the 18-year-old was 4-10 down against Italy’s Danilo Dennis Sollazzo in the new format of the gold medal match. The 19-year-old from Italy was in the lead for most of the final but the Indian was always edging ahead to find any sort of advantage.  Rudrankksh hit a 10.8 to beat Sollazzo’s 10.7 and made the score 13-13. 


From this point ahead Patil won the next four series as he shot over 10.5 and clinched gold. With this top-drawer finish, Rudrankksh Patil bagged the second medal for India at the ISSF Shooting World Championships, as the women’s team of Naamya Kapoor, Vibhuti Bhatia and Esha Singh won bronze in the 25m pistol junior women’s team.