Anish Bhanwala has earned a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics after winning bronze in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol discipline at the on-going 15th Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea. This is the 12th Quota place for the Indian shooting contingent.
Anish shot 588 to qualify in third-place for the six-man final and then shot 28, before bowing out in a shoot-off with silver medallist Dai Yoshioka of Japan. Korean Lee Gunhyeok won gold with a score of 34 in the eight five-shot rapid-fire series decider.
India have now picked up 30 medals from the continental event including eight gold. Anish’s quota was the fifth India have secured in Changwon.
After shooting a 294 in the first precision stage of qualifying on Sunday which had put him among the leaders in the 33-strong field, Anish came back on October 30 morning to shoot 294 in the second rapid-fire round as well. That gave him a total of 588, just one behind China’s Wang Xinjie who topped the field.
Three Chinese made the six-man final as Anish took the third qualifying spot behind world champion Li Yuehong on countback. It was enough to give him one of the two available Paris spots, given China had exhausted their quotas and Lee and Dai had also secured their quotas in earlier competitions.
Vijayveer Sidhu missed out, shooting 581 to finish 10th overall and 8th among contenders. Adarsh Singh was further back in 25th with a score of 570. Olympian Gurpreet Singh, who was playing for ranking points only (RPO), shot 577 to finish 15th overall.
The Men’s Trap trio also won India a silver in the team competition when Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai (111) and Prithviraj Tondaiman (111) shot a total of 341, to finish three behind gold medalists Qatar as Iran took bronze. Zoravar finished sixth after reaching the individual final.
In the women’s trap, 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, giving her 10th spot overall. Manisha Keer (98) and Sabeera Haris (94) were further down the pecking order.
(with inputs from ANI)
