India’s Anjum Moudgil won the silver medal in women’s 10m air rifle at ISSF Shooting World Championships in Changwon, South Korea, as she and Apurvi Chandela, who missed a medal by a whisker, gave India its first Olympic quota spots for Tokyo 2020 on Monday.

Moudgil’s silver was the first medal by an Indian woman in the 10m air rifle at the World Championships. The Indian women’s team also finished with silver in the team competition, behind Korea.

The 24-year-old Moudgil shot a total of 248.4 points to finish second while Chandela finished fourth with 207 points.

Korea’s Hana Im and Eunhea Jung won the gold and bronze respectively with scores of 251.1 and 228. The field included the defending world champion Petra Zublasing, of Italy.

Both the Indian shooters started the final well and kept among the top four. By the 12th shot, when the first elimination took place, Moudgil was leading the field while Chandela was in fourth place. A 10.9 by Chandela and a 10.7 by Moudgil in the 15th shot meant that they were in third and second respectively till the 20th shot, when Chandela bowed out in fourth.

Moudgil then fended off one home favourite Eunhea Jung with a couple of high 10s on the 21st and 22nd shots, but could not fend off another and got the silver.

Earlier in the qualification, Moudgil and Chandela had finished fourth and sixth respectively with scores of 628.7 and 627.5. Mehuli Ghosh, the third Indian, did not make it to the final, finishing 48 with 622.8 points.

Each country can get a maximum of two quotas in each discipline; Moudgil and Chandela have ensured that India has started strong.

In the men’s 10m air rifle, Deepak Kumar was the lone Indian to reach the final. However, he finished sixth in the final with 164.1 points.

In a top 112-man qualification field, Deepak had shot an excellent 630.1 to make it to the eight-man final in fourth place. He began the final well and was in third place till the 10th shot of the 24-shot final, however his 11th and 15th shots had returns of 9.3 and 9.6 respectively, which effectively took him out of contention.

Manisha Keer then gunned down the silver in the women’s junior trap, going down in shoot-off to Italy’s Erica Sessa, after both were tied on 41 after 45 shots in the final. She had a chance to seal the deal with her 45th and final shot going in with a shot advantage but missed.

Other results

Men’s Trap (top six qualify for finals)

- Manavjit Singh Sandhu: finished 24th with a score of 119 out of 125

- Zoravar Singh Sandhu: finished 28th with a score of 118 out of 125

- Lakshay Sheoran: finished 35th with a score of 118 out of 125

- 10th in team event

Men’s 10m Air Rifle (top eight qualify for finals)

- Ravi Kumar: finished 28th with a score of 625.4

- Gagan Narang: finished 42nd with a score of 622.9

- Team score of 1878.4 was short of bronze by 0.1

Women’s Trap Junior (top six qualify for finals)

- Kirti Gupta finished 13th with a score of 108 out of 125

- Soumya Gupta finished 29th with a score of 98 out of 125

- Finished fourth in team event