ISSF World Championship 2026: Vivaan Kapoor takes men's trap silver at Lusail, secures LA 2028 quota
Vivaan Kapoor clinched the men’s trap silver medal at the ISSF World Championship 2026 at the Lusail Shooting Complex in Doha on Thursday, and his podium finish secured India’s third overall quota place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games at the ongoing championship.
Kapoor’s medal follows earlier quota-winning performances by Jaypal Malviya and Niraj Kumar at the same meeting in Doha; Jaypal opened India’s LA28 quota account by taking silver in the men’s 10m air pistol on 5 November, while Niraj added the second quota with a bronze in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions on Wednesday.
In the trap final, Kapoor and Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Alfaihan finished level on 29 hits, with Alfaihan prevailing 3-2 in the sudden-death shoot-off for gold; China’s Qi Ying took bronze with 22 hits.
Qualification featured a seven-way tie at 120 out of 125, from which two Indians advanced to the eight-man final. Kapoor qualified sixth after converting six targets in the qualification shoot-off following rounds of 25, 24, 24, 24 and 23; teammate Udaivir Singh Jaijee also shot 120 (25, 24, 24, 24, 23) and won a sudden-death shoot-off (3+0) to claim the eighth and final qualifying spot. Udaivir finished sixth in the final with 11 hits, eliminated behind Great Britain’s Nathan Hales (11) on qualification ranking.
In the men’s trap team event, the Indian trio of Vivaan (120), Udaivir (120) and Zoravar Singh Sandhu (114) posted a combined total of 354 across five rounds (73, 68, 72, 72, 69) to finish fourth, tying with Poland and Czechia but losing out on a medal on countback due to a lower final-round score; Kuwait won the team gold with 356. Zoravar placed 55th in the individual qualification standings.
India also reached the podium twice in the men’s 25m center fire pistol competition: Ankur Goel claimed individual silver with 583-19x after shooting 292 in the precision stage and 291 in the rapid stage, while Latvia’s Ernests Erbs won gold with 588-24x and Czechia’s Jindrich Dubovy took bronze with 582-26x. Ankur combined with Amanpreet Singh and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu to secure the team bronze with an aggregate 1727-57x; Amanpreet was ninth individually with 578-19x and Rajkanwar 23rd with 566-19x. Ukraine took the team gold with 1735-47x and the Republic of Korea were second on 1731-46x.
After Thursday’s sessions India sit second in the overall medal standings with 13 medals — two gold, seven silver and four bronze — behind China on 27 medals (13 gold, six silver, eight bronze) and ahead of the Republic of Korea, which have 10 medals (two gold, five silver, three bronze).
India has so far secured three Olympic quota places at the championship: Jaypal Malviya (Men’s 10m Air Pistol), Vivaan Kapoor (Men’s Trap) and Niraj Kumar (50m Rifle 3 Positions).