The 2022 Asian Games Champion, Palak Gulia secured a quota place for Paris by finishing 3rd in the ISSF Final Olympic Qualifying Championship Rifle/Pistol being held in Rio de Janeiro from 11 to 20th April, 2024.
With this quota, India has won all the eligible quotas (16) for Paris in Rifle & Pistol events.
In a thrilling final, the 18-year-old Palak was lying in the 5th spot after 14 shots with 6 shooters left.
Crucially for India, she was 6.3 points behind the last quota-place-eligible athlete, Veronika Major.
A series of 8.6, 7.0, 8.8 & 8.9 from the multiple world cup winning Major combined with some consistent shooting from Palak enabled her to leapfrog to the 3rd position and the final quota position. Her compatriot Sainyam finished 5th in the finals.
During the Qualification
Earlier in the qualifications held on Saturday, Palak & Sainyam had finished 6th & 7th respectively with an identical score of 578 to qualify.
The other Indian in the fray, Surbhi Rao, was unlucky to not qualify for the finals after she too shot 578 but finished 9th based on the inner 10s used to split the athletes on the same score.
With this quota, India has clinched all the eligible quotas for the Olympic Rifle & Pistol events for the first time. India has won 20 quotas out of a total of 24 quotas that they are eligible for & would be looking to add the remaining at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualifying Championship Shotgun to be held in Qatar between 19th & 29th April 2024.
Only China (22) have won more quotas in Shooting so far.
In the Women’s Pistol events, Esha Singh (10m Air Pistol), Manu Baker, and Rhythm Sangwan (both 25m Pistol) had won the quota places in the earlier qualifying events.
The team for the Paris Olympics will be decided after the National Selection Trials for Rifle & Pistol events to be held between April 18th & May 17th.
Considering that both Manu Bhaker and Rhythm Sangwan are good in 10m Air Pistol events as well, India could consider entering the same athlete in both Pistol events as a double starter. By doing so, India will have the option to exchange one of the Women’s Pistol quotas for a quota in Shotgun events if required.
However, this will need to be thought out carefully as the shooter could then potentially have three events including the Mixed 10m Air Pistol Team event
