Deepak Kumar earns 10th Olympic quota; India bag five medals

Deepak Kumar of Indian Air Force gifted himself and the country a perfect present on his 32nd birthday, winning bronze in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event and in the process, a 10th quota place at Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on day one of the 14th Asian Shooting Championship (ASC). Manu Bhaker struck gold in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol later in the day and so did the Junior Trap Mixed team pairing of Vivaan Kapoor and Manisha Keer, as India rounded up a profitable opening day at the Lusail Shooting Complex in Lusail, Qatar, with five medals in the kitty already.

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Deepak Kumar brings early success for India

Success came early for India as Asian Games silver medalist Deepak, finally broke through in his third final of this present Olympic quota cycle, both a medal and a quota place having eluded him on two previous occasions, first at the Changwon World Championship in 2018 and then in the Rio ISSF World Cup stage earlier this year. Deepak, who has been the most consistent performer for India in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle over the past three years, shot a steady 626.8 to finish third in qualification, before finishing behind two Chinese shooters in the final to nail the quota and the medal. Deepak finished with 227.8 to bag the third spot after beginning the final on a tentative note. 

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Other Indian shooters who participated

Five finalists were eligible to win three available quota places and Deepak gave the Indian camp some nervous moments placing 6th after the first five shots of the 24-shot final. A brilliant second series saw him rise up to second, from where he never looked back. Manu Bhaker shooting in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol, where both her country and herself were ineligible for quotas having won and exhausted them earlier, clinched gold with a dominating performance. Both Indian quota winners in the event, Manu and Yashaswini Singh Deswal made it to the eight-women finals; Manu topped the qualification with a solid 584 and save a brief moment in the finals, shot confidently and solidly throughout to take out the reigning Asian Games champion from China Wang Qian, by more than 1.5 points in the end equation. Manu finished with 244.3 while Wang won silver with 242.8. Yashaswini shot 578 to qualify fourth and was eliminated in sixth place in the final on a score of 157.4. The third Indian in the field, Annu Raj Singh shot 569 for a 20thplace finish, however, the trio claimed the team bronze with a total of 1731, behind Korea and China, who won gold and silver respectively. In the day’s final medal, Vivaan Kapoor and Manisha Keer of India defeated China’s Ting Zhang and Pengyu Chen 34-29 in the gold medal match, for India’s second gold of the day. The Chinese pair had earlier qualified with a record score in qualification. A second Chinese team won bronze beating Lebanon in the bronze-medal match. In the Women’s 10m Air Rifle, the Indian trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Anjum Moudgil, and Apurvi Chandela won the team silver with a combined effort of 1883.2, finishing behind team Korea who totaled 1891.7. Iran won bronze.

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