DOHA — Vivaan Kapoor stood one clay bird away from world shooting immortality on Thursday.
Pressure mounted under the desert floodlights in Doha. Through 30 rounds of regulation trap shooting, the 24-year-old marksman from Jaipur pulverized target after target with ruthless precision. He finished deadlocked at 29 out of 30 alongside Kuwait’s seasoned ace Abdulrahman Alfaihan. In the sudden-death shoot-off for gold, Kapoor’s barrel twitched. He missed the bird. Alfaihan shattered his own clay to snatch the world crown, leaving the young Indian with a hard-earned silver medal and an Olympic ticket.
Yet the heartbreak vanished almost instantly into celebration. By claiming the silver medal, Kapoor secured a coveted quota spot for India at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. It was a breakthrough display of composure under intense pressure.
Both competitors delivered clinic-level accuracy through regulation firing. Neither flinched across the opening twenty birds, tracking the orange disks as they exploded into dust at speeds exceeding 80 kilometers per hour. Alfaihan held his nerve through the closing rotation to post 29, matching Kapoor shot for shot before forcing the decisive tiebreaker.
A single pull determined the world title. When Kapoor’s shot sprayed past the clay in the shoot-off, Alfaihan stepped onto the pad and made no mistake, sealing the championship.
| ISSF World Championships: Men's Trap Final | Details & Scores |
|---|---|
| Silver Medallist | Vivaan Kapoor (India) |
| Gold Medallist | Abdulrahman Alfaihan (Kuwait) |
| Regulation Score | 29 / 30 clays hit (Tied) |
| Deciding Round | Sudden-Death Shoot-off |
| Major Stake Secured | 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Quota Place |
| Venue | Doha, Qatar |
Kapoor’s podium finish carves his name into an exclusive registry. He becomes only the fourth Indian trap marksman in history to collect a World Championship medal, walking in the footsteps of Maharaja Karni Singh, Zorawar Singh Sandhu, and Manavjit Singh Sandhu.
No Indian has touched individual world gold in the discipline since Manavjit Sandhu’s historic masterclass at the 2006 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Karni Singh had previously won silver, while Zorawar Sandhu also captured a World Championship medal during a decorated career. Kapoor came closer than anyone in eighteen years to matching Sandhu's golden standard.
But this podium finish has been building over years of high-calibre preparation. Earlier in his international campaign, Kapoor partnered with Neeru Dhanda to capture a bronze medal in the mixed team trap event at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup, reinforcing his standing as one of the country's most reliable shotgun talents on the international circuit.
Kapoor’s silver also broadens India’s early footprint for the 2028 Olympic cycle. He is the third Indian shooter across all disciplines to seal a spot for Los Angeles.
Himachal pistol talent Jaypal Malviya opened the account by securing a quota in the men's 10-meter air pistol, followed quickly by rifle marksman Niraj Kumar, who claimed his Olympic ticket courtesy of a bronze medal performance in the men's 50-meter rifle three-positions event.
Kapoor will now head directly back into training camp ahead of the upcoming ISSF World Cup shotgun swing, with national selectors expected to finalize the senior roster for the Asian shotgun championships next month.