Baku [Azerbaijan], August 21 : Shooter Akhil Sheoran clinched a bronze medal in the men's 50 m rifle 3 positions event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship being held in Baku, Azerbaijan on Sunday and also secured a 2024 Paris Olympics quota for the country in the process.
As per the Olympics.com, Akhil was sixth in the medal round after the kneeling series but made a huge comeback during the prone and standing sections to tally a score of 450 and got the podium position. Austria's Alexander Schmirl bagged the gold with 462.6 while the Czech Republic’s Petr Nymbursky clinched the silver, scoring 459.2.
Earlier during the qualifying event, Akhil had secured a sixth-place finish with a score of 585 and made it to the eight-man final. Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar secured a 13th-place finish in the qualifying round with 583 points while Niraj secured a 40th-position finish with 577 points. The combined score of the Indian trio, in total 1,745 points, helped them clinch a gold medal in the team event.
The Championship event is a qualifying event for Paris 2024 Olympics, with 48 quotas to the top-tier multi-sport competition up for grabs. The top four finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic individual shooting events will be handed these quotas.
Since Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish, who had finished fourth and Petr Nymbursky had got their quotas earlier, Akhil needed to finish in the top four among the other six-shooters in the final to secure an Olympic quota.
As National Olympic Committees have exclusive authority for representation of their countries at the Olympics, athletes' participation at the Paris event depends on their NOC selection to represent their delegation at the event.
This is India's fifth Paris 2024 quota in shooting.
At the last year's ISSF Championships, Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men's trap), reigning world champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (men's 10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale (men's 50m rifle 3 positions) clinched Olympic quotas for India. On Sunday, Mehuli Ghosh also secured another quota in the women's 10 m air rifle in Baku on Sunday.
Since a country can field only two shooters per individual event, quotas from Akhil and Swapnil have made sure that India has completed their quota in men's 50 m rifle 3 positions for the 2024 Olympics.
Earlier in the day, India's Rhythm Sangwan made it to the final of the women's 25 m pistol event but secured the eighth spot. Olympian Manu Bhaker (22nd in qualifying with 580 points) and Esha Singh (16th in qualifying with 581) failed to advance to the final.
However, the women's trio had a score of 1,744 which helped them win gold in the women's 25 m pistol team event. Chinese Taipei and China have clinched the silver and bronze respectively.
India has now secured seven medals - four gold and three bronze - at the ISSF World Championships 2023 in Baku so far.
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