Top air rifle shooters fail to win Rio berth

NEW DELHI: Top Indian shooters competing in the men’s 10m air rifle event failed to win a quota place for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the season-opening rifle and pistol ISSF World Cup that got underway at Changwon, South Korea, on Friday.

The performance of all three Indian shooters in the fray, including Beijing Olympic Games champion Abhinav Bindra, was not good enough to fetch them a place in the finals.

After the qualification round, Gagan Narang, winner of bronze at the London Games, finished 44th with 619.9 points, while Bindra shot 619.8 to finish 46th. Sanjeev Rajput was placed 50th with 619.2 points.

Hungary's 36-year old shooter Peter Sidi clinched gold and a Rio quota place in the event.

Overall, there are 24 Olympic quota places in the competition, with three for 10m air rifle. Since the silver and bronze medallists in the competition, Yang Haoran and Zhu Qinan of China, have both earned quota places, the remaining two quota slots went to Korea’s Kim Sang Do --- who finished fourth with 164.7 points --- and Germany’s Nicolas Schallenberger, who was fifth with 143.4 points.