India's Sarabjot Singh bagged the 10m air pistol bronze at the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea, to secure a berth in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
Shooter Sarabjot Singh won a bronze medal and sealed a 2024 Paris Olympics quota place for India in men's 10m air pistol at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea on Tuesday. Sarabjot shot 221.1 in the final to finish behind the Chinese duo of Zhang Yifan (gold, 243.7) and Liu Jinyao (242.1) to earn the eighth Olympic quota place for India in shooting and a first in pistol event. (Sports News)
The Indian had earlier qualified for the top eights with a score of 581, which helped him clinch the eighth spot in the qualification round.
With China having already exhausted their two Olympic quotas in the event and only one of the two Koreans eligible, Sarabjot had his task cut out needing a high finish.
He shot to the lead after the first five shots which was crucial and as the two Chinese caught up and went past him, Sarabjot was able to maintain his composure and register yet another international podium finish.
The other Indians in men's 10m air pistol failed to make the finals. Varun Tomar (578) and Kunal Rana (577) finished 16th and 17th, while Shiva Narwal (576) was 20th and Saurabh Chaudhary (569) was 35th.
In the women's 10m air pistol event, none of the Indians, including those playing for ranking points only, could make the top-eight cut.
Rhythm Sangwan finished 11th (577), Esha Singh 13th (576), Surbhi Rao 15th (575), Ruchita Vinerkar 22nd(571) and Palak 25th (570) respectively.
However, Sainyam lifted the gloom somewhat with a commanding show in the junior women's 10m air pistol event, shooting 240.6 in the finals to win gold by overcoming a strong challenge from Chinese Jin Bohan, who finished second just 0.4 points adrift.
Drishti Sangwan, who had also made it to the eight-shooter finals, finished seventh.
In the qualification round, Sainyam had shot a superb 578 to be placed second going into the finals behind another Chinese shooter Zuo Qingyi, who also shot a 578 but topped the preliminary round on better 'inner-10' score.
Drishti was fourth in qualification with 574 points.