Apurvi claims Rio quota place
NEW DELHI: Rifle shooter Apurvi Chandela’s perseverance paid off in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon (South Korea) on Saturday.
A day after the country’s top guns, including Gagan Narang, were off target, the Rajasthan shooter not only clinched bronze but also won a Rio Olympics quota place. Apurvi became the second Indian to win a quota place after pistol shooter Jitu Rai did so during the 2014 World Shooting Championships in Spain.
In the qualification round, Singapore’s Jasmine Xiang Wei shot 418.8 and was marginally ahead of Apurvi, ranked fourth at 418.4. The finals was a close contest, but Apurvi, known for her determination, held firm to race ahead of her opponents to claim third place.
Croatia’s Snjezana Pjecic proved far superior and won gold at 209.1. Apurvi worked her way to the podium as she shot 185.6 for the third spot. Serbia’s Ivana Maksimovic finished second at 207.7. Surprisingly, two Chinese shooters, including Dongqi Chen, who were among the top eight, were not impressive.
There were three quota places at stake and they were distributed among the top-three shooters as none of them had won one during the world meet last year.
The road for Apurvi, winner of gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, is an uphill one as she can’t sit on the World Cup laurels.
She will need to work hard in the coming months to achieve consistent performances in the seven competitions listed by the NRAI. Otherwise, chances are she may not board the flight to Rio as the quota place is for the country and not the shooter.
Apurvi said the win would boost her confidence. “It will give me an edge over the other shooters in upcoming international events.” The national federation is hopeful Apurvi will bring more laurels in future. NRAI president The 22-year-old shooter’s biggest achievement before her bronze in the ISSF World Cup today was a gold medal in the 2014 CWG at Glasgow.
Her final score of 206.7 at Glasgow was a CWF record. She becomes the second shooter after pistol marksman Jitu Rai to bag a 2016 Rio Olympic Games quota place. Hailing from Jaipur, she won gold in 10m air rifle at the 2012 National championships in New Delhi, in her first year on the senior circuit.
In 2014, she bagged four medals at the Intershoot Championships at The Hague.
Raninder Singh said, “She is mentally very strong and proved it yet again in the World Cup.”
However, the other Indian shooters were not impressive. Jitu Rai finished 21st in men’s 50m free pistol qualification, Prakash Nanjappa was 28th while Om Prakash finished at 38th spot.
In 25m sports pistol, India’s best bet Rahi Sarnobat finished 20th. Annu Raj Singh and Anisa Sayyed too failed to make an impression.