DOHA (Qatar): Birthday boy Deepak Kumar secured India’s 10th Olympic quota after winning the men’s 10m air rifle bronze at the 14th Asian Shooting Championship here on Tuesday evening.
The 2018 Asian Games silver medallist shot 227.8 in the eight-man final to finish third on the podium and add to India’s quotas for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Deepak, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara last year, qualified for the eight-man final in third place with a score of 626.8.
India has already secured nine Tokyo quotas in rifle and pistol and lies behind China (25 quotas) and Korea (12) in the Asian region, besides the host-country Japan (12 allotted slots), in terms of quotas won.
Deepak second after Panwar to book Olympic berth
Deepak, who turned 32, is the second Indian shooter to earn an Olympic quota in the event after Divyansh Singh Panwar, who secured it in April.
It was a great comeback for Deepak after he narrowly missed the quota at the last World Cup in Rio.
India thus completed its full complement of Olympic quota places in air rifle and air pistol for men and women, which would ensure two mixed teams each in air pistol and air rifle in Tokyo.
China’s Yukun Liu (250.5) claimed the gold medal after his incredible performance saw him shoot 10 and above in all the attempts.
The silver went to Haonan Yu (249.1), also a Chinese.
However, China already has earned two quotas in the same event, so they are not entitled to get any more. A maximum of two Olympic berths can be won by a country per event.
Bhaker wins 10m air pistol gold
Manu Bhaker of India claimed the women’s 10m air pistol gold medal.
The 17-year-old, who had already secured an Olympic quota at the Munich World Cup in May, shot 244.3 for the top prize.
China’s Qian wang and Ranxin Jiang won silver and bronze respectively.
Yashaswini Singh Deswal, who had also won the Olympic quota earlier, finished sixth.
The duo of Manisha Keer and Vivaan Kapoor won the junior mixed trap gold to enhance India’s collection on the opening day.
In men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol — in which four Olympic quotas are available — Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anish Bhanwala shot 288 in the first stage, to be sixth.
There were three Chinese ahead of him, and China has already won two Olympic quota. A Korean and a Japanese were also ahead of Anish.
Bhavesh Shekhawat (287) and Adarsh Singh (285) also followed Anish at a distance, and everyone will stand a chance if they shoot well in the second stage on Wednesday.
The Indian shotgun shooters were on target and stayed in the race for Olympic quota in men’s and women’s trap events.
Olympian Kynan Chenai was third among the men after three rounds, with a score of 73, two points behind leader Naser Meqlad of Kuwait.
Former World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj Tondaiman shot identical scores of 71.
Two more rounds will be followed by the final on Wednesday.
In women’s trap, former national champion Shreyasi Singh was in top form as she scored 70, the third best score, following rounds of 24, 22 and 24.
Ray Bassil of Lebanon led with 73. Kirti Gupta (66) and Rajeshwari Kumari (64) followed Shreyasi, at a distance.
