Deepak brightens India’s day

Doha

Birthday boy Deepak Kumar secured India’s 10th Olympics quota in shooting while Manu Bhaker claimed the women’s 10m air pistol gold medal in the 14th Asian Championship here today.

Deepak gifted himself a bronze medal in men’s 10m air rifle on the opening day of the championship. The 2018 Asian Games silver medallist shot 227.8 in the eight-man final. China’s Yukun Liu (250.5) claimed the gold medal after shooting 10 and above in all the attempts. The silver went to China’s Haonan Yu (249.1). However, China has already earned two quotas in the same event. Kiran Ankush Jadhav and Yash Vardhan finished 14th and 30th, respectively.

Later in the day, 17-year-old Bhaker shot 244.3 to win the top prize in her event. The Haryana sensation had already secured an Olympics quota at the Munich World Cup in May. China’s Qian wang and Ranxin Jiang won the silver and bronze, respectively. Yashaswini Singh Deshwal finished sixth in the final, while Annu Raj Singh finished 20th. The Indian trio claimed the team bronze with a total of 1731, behind South Korea and China.
Deepak, who turned 32 today, qualified for the final in third place after an aggregate of 626.8. Deepak, who won a bronze medal at the Guadalajara World Cup last year, started the final with a 8.9, but roared back with nine straight scores of 10 and above to sit in third place.

Deepak is the second Indian to earn an Olympics quota in the men’s 10m air rifle event after Divyansh Singh Panwar, who secured it in April. Panwar and Sanjeev Rajput, who has also secured quota already, shot in the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) category.In the women’s 10m air rifle, the Indian trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela won the team silver with a combined effort of 1883.2, finishing behind South Korea (1891.7). Iran won the bronze. Elavenil finished fifth in the individual category with a score of 187.1. Moudgil finished ninth, while Chandela finished 12th.

The junior trap mixed team pairing of Vivaan Kapoor and Manisha Keer also won gold.

China are currently leading the charts with 25 quotas, followed by South Korea and hosts Japan with 12 slots each, in terms of quotas won. With 38 quotas on offer, India is fielding a 41-member team — six entries for MQS — across the 15 Olympic events.

The tournament is the last chance for shooters to earn quotas for the Tokyo Olympics.