NRAI maintains Olympic Trials format for LA 2028, quota winners receive no guarantees
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) on Sunday announced the selection criteria for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, retaining the Olympic Selection Trials (OST) format used for the 2024 Paris Games.
The new criteria for the pistol and rifle competitions will come into effect with the start of the ISSF World Championships in Doha on Sunday and will remain in place until the selection of the Indian team for the Los Angeles Olympics.
An NRAI official said on condition of anonymity that the selection process will largely follow the previous Olympic cycle with a few modifications. Selection will be based on each shooter’s Final Average Score (FAS), calculated using the average of their three highest OST scores together with the relevant Quota Bonus Points (QBP).
Under the system adopted for the Paris Olympics, shooters in the rifle and pistol events, including those who secured Olympic quota places for India and those who performed well in domestic and international competitions, were required to compete in a series of trials in Delhi and Bhopal. The six best scorers in each competition were included in the selection process.
The trials were meant to assess the form of the quota winners against other leading Indian batsmen before the Games. However, the system caused considerable dissatisfaction and legal problems, with some athletes who had secured Olympic quotas failing to reproduce their best form in the trials and subsequently losing their places in the Indian contingent.
One of the most prominent examples was former world champion Rudrankksh Patil, who lost his place in the men’s 10m air rifle team to Sandeep Singh, who led the NRAI selection trials. Singh eventually finished twelfth at the Paris Olympics.
The NRAI made it mandatory for athletes to compete in at least three of the four OSTs to remain eligible for selection, as was the case for selection at the Paris Olympics.
“Eligible athletes must participate in at least three of the four OSTs to be considered for selection (for the 2028 LA Games). FAS will only be calculated for athletes who have at least three OST scores.
“If an athlete enters a trial but subsequently withdraws before its completion, for reasons known to the athlete, the athlete’s score for selection purposes will be treated as the exact arithmetic total standing at the time of withdrawal,” NRAI said in a statement.
As in the previous Olympic cycle, the NRAI also reiterated that the place in the Olympic quota belongs to the country and not to the athlete securing it.
“As per the existing NRAI criteria, any Olympic quota place won by an Indian athlete belongs to the NRAI and the country. An athlete who gets a quota place will receive due consideration under this criterion, but getting a quota alone does not guarantee that the athlete will represent India in the 2028 Olympics.”
“Quota winners along with other qualified sportspersons have to attend the selection tests in accordance with this criterion,” NRAI added.
SÚKL also established eligibility requirements for participation in OST in accordance with the ISSF qualification system.
Athletes must compete in at least two ISSF Championships between 1 November 2026 and 30 April 2028 – the ISSF World Championships, the ISSF World Championships or the Asian Championships with place quotas – in each individual event for which they are seeking participation in the Los Angeles Olympics.
India’s campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games recently ended with just three gold medals, a significant drop from the seven golds it won at the 2023 edition in Hangzhou.
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