Anish Bhanwala won a bronze medal and a Paris 2024 Olympics quota place in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event at the Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea on Monday.
Bhanwala shot 588 to qualify in third place for the six-man final, and then shot 28 before bowing out to eventual silver medallist Dai Yoshioka of Japan in a shoot-off.
South Korea’s Lee Gunhyeok won the gold medal.
India has won 30 medals from the continental event including eight gold. Bhanwala’s quota was the fifth India have secured in Changwon, and the 12th overall.
After shooting a 294 in the first precision stage of qualifying on Sunday, which had put him among the leaders in the 33-strong field, Bhanwala came back on Monday morning to shoot 294 in the second rapid-fire round, for a total of 588 (tied with Li Yuehong), just one behind China’s Wang Xinjie who topped the field.
Three Chinese shooters made the six-man final as Bhanwala took the third qualifying spot behind world champion Li Yuehong on countback. It was enough to give him one of the two available Paris spots, given China had exhausted their quotas and Lee and Dai had also secured their quotas in earlier competitions.
Vijayveer Sidhu missed out on making the final, shooting 581 to finish 10th overall while Adarsh Singh was further back in 25th with a score of 570. Olympian Gurpreet Singh, who was playing for ranking points only (RPO), shot 577 to finish 15th overall.
In the junior events, Melvina Joel Gladson won silver in the women’s 50m 3-positions rifle event.
The Men’s Trap trio also won India a silver in the team competition when Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai and Prithviraj Tondaiman shot a total of 341, to finish three behind gold medallists Qatar as Iran took bronze. Sandhu finished sixth after reaching the individual final.
In the women’s trap, the best Indian performers where the ones who were not in medal contention. Rajeshwari Kumari and Shagun Chowdhary, both playing as RPO shooters, shot 108 and 107 to finish seventh and eighth respectively. Preeti Rajak was next best with 103, giving her 10th spot overall. Manisha Keer (98) and Sabeera Haris (94) were further down the pecking order.
