Yangpaiboon wins gold as Thailand seal two Olympics spots
Naphaswan Yangpaiboon secured an Olympic quota for Thailand as she won the women’s 25 metres pistol final at the Asian Shooting Championships in Doha yesterday. At the Lusail Shooting Complex, it was a double delight for Thailand as Tanyaporn Prucksakorn also won her country a spot at the next year’s Tokyo Games. India’s Chinki Yadav and Mongolia’s Otryadyn Gundegmaa were the others to bag the quotas for their countries.
All the four had ensured the Olympic qualification after having entered the final, as the two Chinese and two Koreans had already won the quota. Yangpaiboon made it an unforgettable day for as the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist won the event with a score of 36. Gundegmaa finished second with 33, while China’s Zhang Jingjing took home bronze after scoring 28.
South Korea’s Kim Jangmi, the London 2012 Olympic gold medallist in the event, had to settle for fourth place with 26 points. Yadav, who finished sixth in the event, won India’s second Olympic quota in her category following Rahi Sarnobat’s triumph at the ISSF Munich World Cup earlier this year. Thai Prucksakorn came seventh but with Olympic quotas achieved, it was a mission accomplished for the shooters.
In the men’s 25m standard pistol event, China’s Yao Zhaonan triumphed with 578 points. India’s Udhayveer Sidhu took silver with 577 points and South Korea’s Han Daeyoon came third with 572. There was also success for China in the women’s 50m rifle prone event, Wan Xiangyan taking the gold medal with 627.2 points. South Korea’s Lee Eunseo was the runner-up with 625.1 points and was followed in the standings by Malaysia’s Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi with 622.2.
In the equivalent men’s event, Kazakhstan’s Konstantin Malinovskiy won with 625.1 points. Completing the top three were China’s Liu Gang and Li Xinmiao, with points totals of 623.8 and 623.6 respectively.
In the mixed team trap final, Kuwait’s Abdulrahman al-Faihan and Sarah Alhawal beat China’s He Weidong and
Deng Weiyun 34-32. Chinese Taipei’s Liu Wan-Yu and Yang Kun-Pi took bronze after defeating Kazakhstan’s Maxim Kolomoyets and Anastassiya Davydova 42-39. Meanwhile, India’s juniors continued to excel, as their medal tally swelled to 35 of which six are in gold.