Twenty-five nations divided up the 34 Rio 2016 Olympic Games places up for grabs at the Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has confirmed. Among the qualifiers as the event came to an end on Saturday (15 August) were women from Iran and Chile, who earned their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) their first slots at Rio 2016.

Elaheh Ahmadi, 33, and Najmeh Khedmati, 19, won gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the women’s 10m air rifle event, securing berths for Iran in next year’s Olympic Games.

“I’m really happy, this is a very good thing” said Ahmadi, who finished sixth at the London 2012 Olympic Games. “Even though we have a hard situation to train in Iran, I’ll try my best in the Olympic Games. We’ll try to win a medal there. We have lots of young shooters that are very good, and we hope that in the future they will continue this success.”

The Gabala World Cup stage was the 12th Olympic qualifiying event (Photo: ISSF/Nicolo Zangirolami)

Francisca Crovetto Chadid’s seventh place finish in the women’s skeet was enough to add Chile to the list of nations with a place guaranteed at the Rio 2016 Games. All shooting Olympic slots are won by athletes for their NOCs, who then decided if they will use the quota and which athletes they will send.

After 12 qualifying events, 267 of the 390 shooting places at the Olympic Games have already been defined. Click here to follow the race to qualify for Rio 2016.

List of Rio 2016 qualifiers from Gabala World Cup event:

Women’s:
10m Air Rifle: Iran (2), Russia
25m Pistol: Russia, Mongolia
10m Air Pistol: Russia, France, Thailand
50m Rifle 3 Positions: Poland, Switzerland
Skeet: Poland, Chile
Trap: Japan, Chinese Taipei

Men’s
25m Rapid Fire Pistol: China (2)
10m Air Rifle: Croatia, Belarus, Hungary
50m Pistol: Spain, India
50m Rifle Prone: Czech Republic, Denmark
10m Air Pistol: Kazakhstan (2), Republic of Korea
50m Rifle 3 Positions: Russia, India
Skeet: Austria, Argentina
Trap: Croatia, Turkey
Double Trap: Great Britain, Germany

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.