Shooter Anish Bhanwala wins bronze and India's 12th Paris Olympics quota place

PTI

New Delhi, October 30

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anish Bhanwala bagged India’s 12th Paris Olympic quota in shooting as he clinched a bronze medal in the men’s 25m rapid pistol fire event at the Asian Championships in Changwon, Korea on Monday.

The 21-year-old from Karnal, who had 28 hits in the final, lost a shoot out to Japan’s Dai Yoshioka, who won the silver medal.

Local favourite Lee Gunhyeok took home the gold with a score of 34 in the eight five-shot rapid-fire series decider.

Bhanwala fetched the quota for the Paris Games by ending the qualification stage in third place with a score of 588, just one behind China’s Wang Xinjie who topped the field.

Three Chinese made the six-man final as the Indian took the third qualifying spot behind world champion Li Yuehong on countback.

It was enough to give him one of the two available 2024 Olympics spots, given that China had exhausted their quotas and Lee and Dai had also secured their Paris Games berths in earlier competitions.

Among other Indians, Bhavesh Shekhawat shot 584 to be among the top-eight in the qualification but could not enter the final as he was competing for ranking points only (RPO). He was not eligible for the final.

Vijayveer Sidhu also missed out, shooting 581 to finish 10th overall and eight among the contenders. Adarsh Singh was further back in 25th with a score of 570.

The men’s trap trio also won India a silver in the team competition as Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai (111) and Prithviraj Tondaiman (111) shot a total of 341 to finish three behind gold medalists Qatar. Iran took the bronze.

Sandhu finished sixth after reaching the individual final.

India have now picked up 30 medals from the continental event, including eight gold. Bhanwala’s quota was the fifth India have secured in Changwon.

In the women’s trap event, the best Indian performers where the ones who were not in medal contention. Rajeshwari Kumari and Shagun Chowdhary, both playing as RPO shooters, shot 108 and 107 to finish seventh and eighth respectively.

Preeti Rajak was next best with 103, which gave her 10th spot overall. Manisha Keer (98) and Sabeera Haris (94) were further down the pecking order. 

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