Niraj Kumar Wins Bronze, Secures India’s Second Shooting Quota for LA 2028 Olympics

India secures second shooting quota for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics after the Indian shooter Niraj Kumar claimed a bronze medal in the men’s 50m rifle three positions event at the ISSF World Championship 2026. 

On Wednesday (11 November), India secured an LA28 quota for the men’s 50m rifle three positions after Niraj Kumar claimed a bronze medal. Just a few days ago, Jaypal Malviya secured India’s first shooting quota for the next Summer Olympics after winning a silver medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Championship 2026.

Despite managing fifth place in the kneeling with 102.1 points, Niraj made a strong comeback in the prone battle, as he claimed third place with a total of 206.8 points. Although Niraj was brilliantly managing the second place before the penultimate standing challenge, Slovak Patrik Jany just managed to push him back in the penultimate round, as the Indian couldn’t challenge in the final round and ended the battle with 346.5 points, securing the bronze medal. Jany, who managed to score 346.8 points in total before the final round, claimed the silver medal with 357.2 points. 

Starting with the equal leading points at the end of the kneeling (102.9) with another Indian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, the 21-year-old Russian shooter Dmitry Pimenov (playing as a neutral) strongly dominated in the other rounds to comfortably win the gold medal with a junior world record score of 362.8. He was just inches away from the world record score of 363.0 by the Chinese shooter Zhang Changhong, set last July. Meanwhile, the Indian shooter Tomar finished in fifth place with 323.7 points, as he struggled from the prone round.

ISSF World Championship 2026: Men's 50m Rifle Three Positions — Final Scores