Vivaan Kapoor takes trap silver in Doha, secures India’s LA 2028 Olympic quota
Vivaan Kapoor won silver in the men's trap at the ISSF World Championships in Doha on Thursday, losing a shoot-off to Kuwait's Abdulrahman Alfaihan but earning India a quota place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Both shooters finished the 30-shot final level on 29 before Alfaihan prevailed in the tie-break.
The 24-year-old from Jaipur was in contention throughout and had been on track to become only the second Indian world champion in men's trap after Manavjit Singh Sandhu's 2006 victory. Kapoor became the fourth Indian man to medal at the World Championships in trap, joining Karni Singh (silver), Manavjit Singh Sandhu (gold) and Zorawar Singh Sandhu (bronze in 2025), and his previous best result had been silver at the 2024 ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi.
Kapoor dropped only one target in the final, missing on the 28th shot, which allowed Alfaihan to draw level at 27-27 before both shooters finished on 29 and fell one short of a possible 30 that would have equalled a world record. Alfaihan, 40, who was a junior world champion in 2006 and is a three-time Asian champion, had been trailing by a point earlier in the shooting.
The shoot-off saw both marksmen hit their first two targets before Kapoor missed the third and Alfaihan hit his, after which the Kuwaiti celebrated with his coach and took the world title. Kapoor settled for silver while China's Qi Ying, the 2024 Paris Olympics silver medallist, claimed bronze; Paris gold medallist Nathan Hales of Great Britain finished fifth.
India had two finalists, with Udaivir Singh Jaiji finishing sixth after being eliminated following the first 15 shots with 11 hits. Making his maiden senior World Championships final, Kapoor credited prior experience and his coaches, saying, "I guess I just gave my best. I focused on my job like always. I've played against a couple of these shooters before, so that experience helped me and also a big thanks to (foreign coach) Peter (Wislosn) for training us before this competition." He added, "It was lovely the way he trained us during the national camp and also to my personal coach Giovanni Cernogoraz... shooting with him is like shooting with the champions, so that made me also stronger and (to compete) against shooters of this level and then in the end I was just flowing in, just trying to do my job."
In the three-day qualification, which comprised five series of 25 shots, Kapoor and Udaivir both scored 120/125; Kapoor finished sixth after a tense shoot-off involving six other shooters, while Udaivir advanced in eighth and last place via a shoot-off. Nathan Hales topped qualification with 123, followed by Qi Ying on 122.
The Indian men's trap team of Vivaan, Udaivir and Zorawar finished fourth on a count-back after tying on an aggregate 354 with Poland and the Czech Republic; Kuwait won team gold with 356 while Poland and the Czech Republic took silver and bronze respectively on 354. The Indian women's trap team — Pragati Dubey (110/125), Manisha Keer (107) and Neeru Dhanda (105) — placed seventh with a combined 322, with Italy taking team gold on 348; none of the three reached the eight-shooter individual final.
Kapoor's silver not only secured a World Championships medal but confirmed an LA 2028 quota for India; he became the third Indian shooter to clinch a quota place for Los Angeles after men's 10m air pistol marksman Jaypal Malviya and men's 50m rifle 3-positions bronze medallist Niraj Kumar.
