Doha: Deepak Kumar won the men’s 10m air rifle bronze medal at the 14th Asian Championships here on Tuesday, and in the process ensured India’s 10th Tokyo Olympic quota in shooting.
Deepak shot 227.8 in the final of the event on the tournament’s opening day and qualified for the eight-man final in third place with a score of 626.8.
After Divyansh Singh Panwar, Deepak is the second Indian shooter to earn an Olympic quota in the event.
Indian shooters have already secured nine Tokyo quotas in rifle and pistol and lie behind China (25 quotas) and Korea (12) in the Asian region.
There will be plenty of expectation from the strong Indian contingent here. A team of 63 men and 45 women are taking part in the senior, junior and youth categories across rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines in the 10-day continental championship which offers 38 Tokyo Olympic quota places across 12 of the 15 Olympic shooting events.
So far, the Indians who have already secured Olympics berths and therefore are not eligible to win quotas here are Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil (Women’s 10m Air Rifle), Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma (Men’s 10m Air Pistol), Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Singh Deswal (Women’s 10m Air Pistol), Rahi Sarnobat (Women’s 25m Pistol), Sanjeev Rajput (Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions) and Divyansh Singh Panwar (Men’s 10m Air Rifle).
As per the rule, there can be a maximum of two Olympic berths won from a single event and India will thus not be eligible for quotas in those events where they have already secured two quotas.
(IANS)
Prasanta Patnaik