New Delhi: The recently-concluded ISSF World Cup Final at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range here served to reinforce China’s domination in the sport with Chinese shooters bagging a total of eight medals, five of them gold. It came as little surprise considering China had topped the shooting tally at the Paris Olympics with ten medals, half of which were gold.

Hosts India, who fielded a 23-member contingent, the largest among the 37 participating nations, ended with four medals to take the ninth spot. Sonam Maskar and Vivaan Kapoor won a silver each in the 10m air rifle and trap events while Akhil Sheoran and Anantjeet Singh Naruka ended third in 50m 3P and skeet competitions respectively.

India’s Paris Olympics bronze medallists – Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, and Swapnil Kusale opted out of the year-end event. The Indian team still had nine shooters who had competed in Paris. Of these, only four – Arjun Babuta, Arjun Singh Cheema, Rhythm Sangwan, and Naruka – could go past the qualification stage in New Delhi.

Two-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Rio 2016 Olympian Chain Singh, and Divyansh Singh Panwar, part of the Indian team at the Tokyo Games, also competed, ensuring there was no lack of promise and pedigree. All three made the finals, but while Khan and Panwar were the first to exit, Singh ended seventh in his event.

Overall, Indian shooters made all but three of the 12 possible finals with six events witnessing two Indian finalists. Sangwan finished fourth in both her events after slipping from medal positions and Babuta dropped from the top to the fifth place in the air rifle event and India missed out on a chance to bolster their eventual tally.

The biggest positive that India will take from the event is the success of its youngsters. Both Maskar and Kapoor have been on the fringes of the first-choice team and both ended the event with their maiden senior individual World Cup medals. Women’s 10m rifle event is one of the more competitive events in India with the likes of Elavenil Valarivan, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ramita Jindal pushing each other and now Maskar’s success will only add to the intense competition.

The women’s pistol events, over the past few years, have also thrown up some high-quality Indian shooters with the likes of Esha Singh and Palak Gulia pushing the envelope even as Bhaker continues to dominate. In their absence, Surbhi Rao – fifth in 10m air pistol – and Simranpreet Brar – sixth in 25m pistol – gave a good account of themselves.

In the men’s air rifle division, Panwar’s comeback bid ended in eighth place while Paris demons returned to haunt Babuta. “I think I’ll take a lot of positives from this result,” said Babuta. “I had flashbacks of Paris at the clutch shots, and that is something that will go away only through more competitions. I am also working to improve my physical fitness so that I don’t tire deep into the finals.”

The biggest plus though was the performance of shotgun shooters. While the experienced pros disappointed, the success of youngsters such as Naruka and Kapoor promised a lot. In a discipline where shooters mature well into their mid-30s, the Indian duo has enough time to build on its success.

“LA is certainly on my radar,” said Kapoor who came close to making the Paris team. “I narrowly missed out on the Olympics this year and my coach Khaled Al-Mudhaf and I are planning for the 2028 Games.”

For Naruka, the World Cup Final bronze is another major marker on his upward trajectory that began with a historic individual silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. Naruka had then hit a staggering 58 out of 60 targets only to go down to three-time world champion and two-time Olympic bronze medallist, Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi. It took a world record (60/60) from Al-Rashidi to beat Naruka to gold. The Indian still looks back at that epic battle with immense pride.

“To go toe to toe with the legend gave me a lot of belief. That is when I truly started to believe in myself. From there, to win an Olympic quota, finish fourth in Paris and win my maiden World Cup Final medal, it has been a truly wonderful 18 months or so. Next target is, of course, Los Angeles,” he said.

At the start of the competition, NRAI had listed testing the bench strength as one of the primary targets for the home team. Three days later, the federation reckoned they had met their goals.

“This has been one of the best World Cup Finals for India. While assessing a performance, we should not look at the medal count alone. Look at the number of our shooters who made the finals, look at how many came close to a medal. Two medals in shotgun was another big plus because it’s traditionally been a tough event for us. This competition proves that our shooters can compete with the best and we are capable of winning medals on a good day,” NRAI president Kalikesh Singh Deo said.

The competition was also the first ISSF event post the Olympics which meant the shooters, Indian as well as international, didn’t get enough time to peak. Some shooters were coming straight off month-long breaks, having picked up their weapons barely a week before landing in Delhi. Some, like Hungary’s Istvan Peni, were still good enough to medal in both his events despite being low on training.

“It’s an amazing result. I have always done well in India and after not being able to do well at the Olympics, I was hoping to end the year on a high and start planning for Los Angeles 2028 in earnest,” Peni said.

With the international calendar now closed for the year, Indian shooters will line up for the Nationals in December as another Olympics cycle gets rolling.