BEIJING, APR 28,
The shooting range in Beijing continues to be a favourite hunting ground for India.
At the place where Abhinav Bindra won the country’s only individual Olympic gold in 2008, the Indian shooters were busy collecting more Olympic quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Abhishek Verma bettered Divyansh Singh Panwars’ effortt — he won the silver and Olympic quota in men’s air rifle — by clinching the men’s air pistol gold to go with the Olympic quota.
India thus climbed to the top of the medals table with three gold and a silver, ahead of host China which had two gold, two silver and a bronze.
Abhishek — the 29-year-old Asian Games bronze medallist — led from start to finish to win with a 2.3 points margin over Artem Chernousov of Russia. Abhishek had qualified in fourth place with the second best score of 585 out of 600.
Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary and Divyansh Singh Panwar are the others to win the Olympic quota earlier.
Not at their best
other Indian shooters, Shahzar Rizvi (576) and World junior champion Arjun Singh Cheema (571) were not at their best.
It did not matter, as India could win only two Olympic quota places in the event, which were secured by Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma.
Incidentally, Saurabh was competing in the MQS section, as the national federation opted to keep him out of the main team in an attempt to help others secure the second Olympic quota. Saurabh shot 580, following a series of 96, 94, 97, 98, 99 and 96.
Manu in 14th
In women’s 25-metre sports pistol, Manu Bhaker shot 291 in the precision stage to be 14th, four points behind leaders Monika Karsch of Germany and Anna Korakaki of Greece, the World and Olympic champions.
Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat (288) and Chinki Yadav (284) were not that well placed, but a lot would depend on the performance of the shooters in the rapid fire section on Sunday. The top eight qualify for the final.
Meanwhile, world record holder Anjum, competing in the MQS section in the women’s rifle 3-position event, put together a total of 1163, following 394 each in kneeling and prone, apart from 375 in standing.
The three girls in the main team, Gaayathri Nithyanandam (1167), Sunidhi Chauhan (1156) and Kajal Saini (1157), aspiring to win the Olympic quota, came through the elimination round to make the qualification stage.
