Sift Kaur Samra, world record holder makes her Olympics debut in Paris: Form guide and career highlights

Image Source : AP Sift Kaur Samra, will be looking to replicate her Asian Games 2022 achievement in women's rifle 3 positions as she makes her Olympic debut

Just at 22, Sift Kaur Samra, an MBBS dropout, is standing at the top of the podium having won India's first-ever individual shooting Gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. If that wasn't enough, Samra broke the world record in the process in 50m Women's Rifle 3 Positions. Samra ended up winning a Silver in the 50m Women's Rifle 3 Positions team event and her journey for Paris Olympics kicked off.

Introduced to shooting at the age of 9 by her brother, Samra bagged five medals at the Junior World Cup before winning a Gold medal in the National Games in 2022 which put on her on prospective medal candidates list for the Asian Games last year and now it's the time for the big dance. Samra also won a bronze on debut at the ISSF World Cup in the 50m rifle 3 positions.

Samra scored a total of 469.6 points to win the Gold medal at Asiad. Out of those Samra earned 154.6 in kneeling, 157.9 in prone and 157.1 in standing elimination to beat Qiongyue Zhang of China and broke the world record by Britain’s Seonaid McIntosh by a margin of just 2.6 points.

Mission Paris Olympics didn't begin well for Samra as she had a disappointing qualification round. The trials, however, saw the best of Samra. She despite a 1.1 point deficit in the kneeling position after 15 shots, came from behind to finish at the top spot with 466.3 points ahead of the fellow Olympic quota-winner Ashi Chouksey (462.6) and Olympian Anjum Moudgil (449.2).

However, that was just the start as it was just the first of the four trials. Chouksey eventually missed out on the final squad with Samra and Anjum Moudgil sealing spots in the women's rifle 3 positions event.

Samra is part of India's 21-member, biggest-ever, shooting contingent for the Olympics led by Manu Bhaker, who is the only Indian athlete taking part in three events, two individual and one mixed team. Samra's women's rifle 3 positions qualification event takes place on August 1 with the final scheduled for August 2 at the National Shooting Center in Châteauroux.

Samra, who is set to turn 23 in September, is one of the top contenders for a medal in just her debut appearance at the Summer Games and will be looking to celebrate her birthday with some Gold rush.