Indian shooters will look to come out all guns blazing as the likes of Heena Sidhu, Vijay Kumar and Manavjit Singh Sandhu make one last attempt to secure quota places for Rio Games in the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition starting here tomorrow.
London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar, former world number one shooters Heena and Manavjit are yet to earn quotas for the quadrennial extravaganza scheduled to take place in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in August.
The prestigious Asian event, to be held from January 27 to February 3 at the Karni Singh Range, will see participation of 575 shooters from 32 nations for 35 quota places.
Eleven Indian shooters had taken part in the London Games finals four years ago, and the Indian contingent is hoping to better that mark this time around. So far, eight Indian shooters have secured quotas for Rio Olympics.
Pooja Ghatkar, Ayonika Paul, Sanjeev Rajput, Rahi Sarnobat and Lajja Gauswami will also look forward to secure quota places in the tournament.
There will be four quotas each for men in trap and skeet, but only one apiece for women. The men's and women's 3-position rifle and women's sports pistol will offer three quotas each while the other events will have two quota places each.
A silver medallist in men's 25-m rapid fire pistol, Vijay has not won anything of note on the world stage since finishing on the podium in London. A perennial shoulder injury played a role in Vijay's slump in form.
The 30-year-old armyman will be competing in his pet event, and is hoping to reap the rewards of months of training and rehabilitation.
Heena, the first Indian pistol shooter to be ranked number one, a feat she achieved after winning gold medal in the ISSF World Cup finals in 2013, will aim to scale similar heights.
At the same venue last September, the 26-year-old had won the top prize in the Asian Airgun Championship. Sidhu is also the finals world record holder in 10m air pistol event with a score of 203.8.
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In a field packed with Olympians and even a former Olympic silver medallist, teenager Anmol Jain of Haryana caused a flutter, winning the men's 10m air pistol event at the Balewadi Sports Complex.
Anmol beat veteran Olympian P N Prakash of Karnataka in the eight-man final, shooting a score of 201.4 in the allotted 20-shots. Prakash shot 197.5 to settle for the silver, while Omkar Singh of the Navy won the bronze with a final score of 175.8.
Anmol, who has come up the ranks and has been a consistent international shooter at the junior level for the past two years, including winning a silver at the Junior World Cup in Gabala, was up against Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar and multiple international medallist Jitu Rai, apart from other established international shooters such as Prakash and Omkar Singh right through the 60-shot qualifying round and the final round. He shot 579 to qualify in third position. Jitu Rai finished ninth in qualifying to miss the final.
In the final, after being in third position initially, Anmol took the lead by the end of the eighth shot and never looked back. He also won the silver medal in the junior men's 10m pistol event, finishing behind Gaurav Tomar of the Army.
Gaurav shot 196.2 in the junior final while Anmol managed 195.4. Hemendra Singh of Rajasthan won the bronze with a score of 173.3.
