De_Gambassi

While the 2022 European Shotgun Championships continue in Larnaca, Cyprus, another blue ribbon shooting event with places in Paris up for grabs is taking place in a very different European city. Wrocław is the capital of Poland's southwestern Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with about 650,000 people calling it home. The city will be hosting the 2022 European 25m/50m Shooting Championships, with places at the 2024 Olympic Games on the line. Hosted at the shooting range of Polish top-flight football club Śląsk Wrocław, which also has top-tier teams in women's football and handball as well as being the reigning Polish basketball champion.
 
The top two places (with the stipulation that the same country can't win both places) in four events will earn a spot for their country at the 2024 Olympics: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions for both genders, the Men's Rapid Fire Pistol and the Women's 25m Pistol. The first week of competition will be dedicated to junior competitions which do not earn quota places, but preliminary competition for the Olympic events starts on 12 September for all events apart from the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions, which starts on 13 September. On 14 September, the finals will take place: firstly the Women's 25m Pistol at 11:00 local time, before the Men's Rapid Fire Pistol at 17:00 and the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions at 19:00. The Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions final will take place on 15 September at 17:00.
 
It is too early for a start list, but there is guaranteed to be a range of talent on show. At Tokyo 2020, out of the twelve medallists in these events, seven were European, although four of these were Russian and will not be competing. The other three Europeans to medal in these events were Men's Rapid Fire Pistol champion Jean Quiquampoix of France, Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions bronze medallist Milenko Sebić of Serbia, and champion in the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event Nina Christen of Switzerland. While finding information on participation is not the easiest, the Swiss federation has confirmed that Christen will compete, so we will see at least one Olympic champion.
 
This event has a different priority than it did in the Tokyo cycle, coming first in the schedule for shooters in this event. In the Tokyo Games, it was somewhere in the middle of the calendar. The Czech Republic and Italy got a place in the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions thanks to Petr Nymburský and Lorenzo Bacci, while in the Women's event it was Belarus' Maria Martynova and Denmark's Stine Nielsen. In the Men's Rapid Fire Pistol Italy's Riccardo Mazzetti and Azerbaijan's Ruslan Lunev earned a spot, while in the Women's 25m Pistol both places went to France thanks to Mathilde Lamolle and Celine Goberville, something that would be impossible this time around.

The first eight spots in Paris 2024 Shooting will be earned over the coming weeks at the 2022 European Championship (Shotgun) takes place in Larnaca, Cyprus. A modest "hidden gem" on the island nation's south-eastern coast, Larnaca is the country's third largest city, although the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range is actually in the nearby village of Tersefanou, with a population of about 1300.
 
Plenty of events will take place, but four of them matter for Paris 2024 qualification: the Men's and Women's Trap and Skeet events. The top two athletes will earn at most one place for their NOC (so the same country cannot snag both quotas). The opening ceremony will take place on Thursday, with Trap qualification on Friday and Saturday before the finals later on Saturday, with the women at 14:30 local time and the men at 16:30. After that, a few non-Olympic events take place but the Skeet Qualification begins on 8 September, before continuing on 9 September. Later on 9 September the finals will take place, again with the women beginning at 14:30 and the men at 16:30. Qualifying one man and one woman in Skeet will also guarantee a place in the Mixed Team event.
 
In Lonato del Garda in 2019, eventual Olympic champion Czech Republic's Jiří Lipták and Great Britain's Aaron Heading earned a spot in the Men's Trap, with Greece's Nikolas Mavrommatis and Cyprus' Dmitris Konstantinou earning a spot in the Skeet. On the women's side, the ROC's Daria Semianova and San Marino's Alessandra Perilli (who won bronze in Tokyo) earned a spot in the Trap with the Czech Republic's Barbora Šumová and Ukraine's Iryna Mavlochiko earning a spot in the Skeet. However, this time, the European Shotgun championship is top of the pecking order (Shooting quota places have priority based on chronological order) rather than somewhere in the middle.
 
The European Shotgun Confederation (ESC) has not provided a start list, but noted that "All members of the European Shooting Confederation are invited to participate
without any exception", implying that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to compete. Some big names are expected to compete however: in Tokyo 2020, all three men's trap medallists (including champion Lipták), two women's trap medallists and the silver medallists in both skeet events were Europeans, as were the top two in the mixed trap team. An article on the IOC website confirms at least six Olympic medalists will be present: Jesper Hansen (Silver, Men's Trap, Denmark), Matthew Coward Holley (Bronze, Men's Skeet, Great Britain), Fátima Gálvez, Alberto Fernández (both Gold, Mixed Trap, Spain), Gianmarco Berti, and Alessandra Perilli (both Silver, Mixed Trap, San Marino; Perilli also won bronze in the individual trap event). With only two spots up for grabs in Larnaca per event, there will be stiff competition.