Palak Gulia, the reigning Asian Games champion, has secured India's 20th Olympic quota in shooting for the 2024 Paris Games. The 18-year-old from Haryana clinched the bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship (Rifle and Pistol) in Rio De Janeiro on Sunday.
Gulia, who had won an individual gold and team silver in the 10m air pistol at the Hangzhou Asian Games, overcame a slow start in the 24-shot final. She displayed nerves of steel to climb steadily up the leaderboard and eventually score 217.6.
Gulia eventually bowed out after the 22nd shot to settle for third place. Armenia's Elmira Karapetyan won gold, while Thai teenager Kamonlak Saencha clinched the silver and the second available quota place.
India has now clinched a maximum of 16 Paris Olympic spots available to a country in pistol and rifle events. The country's shotgun shooters can still earn four Paris berths in men's and women's trap and skeet events when the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship (Shotgun) commences in Doha on April 19.
Gulia and Sainyam had qualified for the eight-woman final on Saturday placed sixth and seventh respectively with identical scores of 578. Save Karpetyan, who had already booked her quota in earlier competitions, all other finalists could claim the available Paris berths.
Both Gulia and Sainyam had a forgettable start to the final, but came back strongly even as Saencha and the experienced Veronika Major of Hungary threatened to pull away from the field in the early stages with some sublime shooting.
Gulia and Sainyam were struggling to get past the fifth position before the eliminations started. However, things turned the Indians' way as Major suffered a meltdown. Ahead of the 19th shot, Gulia took a 0.6 lead over Major with Sainyam exiting in fifth position. The Hungarian could not hit the 10-ring as the Indian did it once and sealed the quota place.
Karapetyan (240.7) clinched gold on the final shot as Saencha (240.5) crumbled with a poor shot which fetched her 8.6.
Tags: #Shooting, #Paris2024, #ISSF, #PalakGulia, #Women10mAirPistol
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