Vivaan Kapoor clinches shooting silver, secures India’s LA 2028 Olympic quota
New Delhi: Indian shooter Vivaan Kapoor came close to clinching a world title but settled for a silver medal in the men’s trap event at the ISSF World Championships on Thursday, November 12. His silver also brought another major achievement as he secured an Olympic quota spot for India at the
The 24-year-old shooter from Jaipur was in brilliant form throughout the competition and was on course to become only the second Indian to clinch a men’s trap world title. Manavjit Singh Sandhu is the only Indian to have achieved the milestone after securing gold at the 2006 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
But his hopes of claiming the gold medal ended after a tense shoot-off against Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Alfaihan. Both shooters finished the regulation 30-shot final with 29 hits each, forcing a tie-break to decide the winner. Alfaihan stayed calm under pressure and won the gold, while Vivaan secured the silver medal.
Despite missing out on the gold, Vivaan became only the fourth Indian men’s trap shooter to secure a World Championships medal. He joined the elite list, which includes Karni Singh (silver), Manavjit Singh Sandhu (gold), and Zorawar Singh Sandhu (bronze) in 2025. He also became the third Indian shooter to secure a quota place for the 2028 Olympics, after men’s 10m air pistol shooter Jaypal Malviya and men’s 50m rifle 3-positions bronze medallist Niraj Kumar.
Vivaan looked in great form in the final, with his only miss coming on the 28th shot. Alfaihan was trailing by just one point before taking advantage of the Indian shooter’s mistake to level the score at 27-27. Both shooters eventually finished with 29 hits, falling just short of a perfect 30, which would have been a world record.
The shoot-off started with both hitting their first two targets, but Vivaan missed the third, while Alfaihan kept his composure to secure the gold medal. China’s Qi Ying claimed bronze, while reigning Olympic champion Nathan Hales of Great Britain finished fifth. Udaivir Singh Jaiji finished sixth after managing only 11 hits in the first 15 shots before being eliminated.
‘I just gave my best’
Competing in his first-ever senior World Championships final, Vivaan credited his previous experience against top international shooters for helping him to stay calm under pressure.
“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 (Wilson) for training us before this competition,” said Vivaan.
“I feel that it’s a great thing that I could do for the country and I’m very happy that now we have a quota and let’s hope I give my best and hope to shoot better and better,” he added.
The Indian trio of Vivaan, Udaivir and Zorawar also finished fourth in the men’s trap team event. They narrowly missed out on bronze after being tied with Poland and the Czech Republic on an aggregate score of 354. The count-back rule eventually pushed India out of the medal positions.
Kuwait won the team gold with a total of 356, while Poland and the Czech Republic shared the silver and bronze positions, respectively, after both finished with 354. Earlier, during the three-day qualification round, which featured five series of 25 shots each, Vivaan registered a score of 120/125 to finish sixth. He had to go through a shoot-off involving six other shooters who were tied on the same score to secure his place in the final.
Udaivir also shot 120/125 and made it to the eight-shooter final in the last qualifying position after the shoot-off. Olympic champion Nathan Hales topped the qualification standings with 123, followed by Olympic silver medallist Qi Ying with 122.