Changwon [South Korea], October 31 : Indian shooter Shriyanka Sadangi clinched a Paris Olympics 2024 quota after securing a fourth-place finish at the Asian Shooting Championships in the women's 50 m rifle 3 positions in South Korea on Tuesday.
This is India's 13th quota in shooting for the 2024 Olympics and second in women's 50 m rifle 3 positions event. A country can have a maximum of two quotas per shooting event for the Paris Olympics. India obtained six of its 13 quotas at the Asian Shooting Championships itself, as per Olympics.com.
Sadangi had a score of 440.5 in the final and she finished fourth behind the bronze medalist Siyu Xia (453.3) of China, silver medalist Jiayu Han (463.3) of China and South Korea's gold medalist Eunseo Lee (468.5).
The Asian Shooting Championships is a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics, with 24 quotas on offer. The top two finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic shooting events will get a spot for their nations.
Eunseo had already won a quota for South Korea and China had reached the maximum quota limit of two in women's 50 m rifle three positions. Shriyanka earned the quota for India.
The National Olympic Committee have the exclusive authority to represent their nations in the Olympics. The participation of athletes depends on the NOC selecting them in the delegation of Paris 2024.
Indian rifle and pistol shooters who have a Paris 2024 quota will receive a bonus point in national trials scheduled for next year, as per the policy of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
During the qualification round, Shriyanka shot 588 to secure a sixth-place finish. Asian Games bronze medalist Ashi Chouksey stood second in the qualifying round with 591 points with Ayushi Podder at ninth with 587 points.
In the final, Ashi scored 417.4 points to finish sixth while Ayushi got 407.5 points to finish seventh.
Asian Games champion Sift Kaur Samra topped the qualifying round with 592 points, but she was competing for Ranking Points Only (RPO) and did not reach final eight. Manini Kaushik, also competing under RPO, finished 10th with 586 points in qualification.
The combined total of 1766 points by Ashi, Shriyanka and Ayushi helped India clinch gold in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions team event ahead of Kazakhstan (1760) and South Korea (1759).
The Indian shooters will be in action in men's 50 m rifle 3 positions on Wednesday. India's most successful Asian Games shooter Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar will be in action as well.
Since India has completed its two quotas in men's 50 m rifle 3 positions, Tomar cannot add to India's Olympic quotas at the Asian Championships.
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