Maheshwari Chauhan secured a Paris quota for India in the women’s skeet event at the ISSF Final Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.

The Doha meet is the final shotgun qualifying event for the Paris Games.

The top two eligible shooters in each individual event (maximum one per country) secured quotas.

Maheshwari finished second in the skeet event after Francisca Crovetto Chadid of Chile.

Both scored 54 but the Chilean finished top after pipping the Indian shooter in the shoot-off.

This was India’s 21st quota in shooting for the Paris Summer Games and only the fifth one in shotgun events.

Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap), Rajeshwari Kumari (women’s trap), Raiza Dhillon (women’s skeet) and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (men’s skeet) are the other shotgun shooters from the country who had obtained quotas at earlier qualifying events.

National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Summer Games.

Maheshwari’s quota also means India can field the full allocation of two shooters in the women’s skeet event in Paris.

Earlier, she shot a national record score of 121 in the qualifiers to finish fourth and made the cut for the six-woman final round.

Ganemat Sekhon, 24th with 115, and Areeba Khan, 47th with 111, both failed to qualify for the quota round.

In the men’s skeet event, none of the three Indian shooters in action made it beyond the qualifying round.

Tokyo Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan was the best-placed Indian in the qualifiers, finishing 75th.

Former Asian champion Angadvir Singh Bajwa was 77th while Sheeraj Sheikh finished in the 79th position. Only the top six qualified for the final.

Indian trap shooters had failed to add to their country’s Paris quota count at Doha earlier this week.

The Doha meet was also the final qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Indian shooters managed to secure 21 of the 24 possible quotas, including a full allocation of eight each in rifle and pistol events.

This is India’s best-ever quota haul in shooting at any edition of the Olympics, eclipsing the 15 from Tokyo Games.