Reigning Asian Games champion Palak Gulia secured the 20th Olympic quota place in Paris in shooting for the country and clinched the bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship (Rifle and Pistol) in Rio on Sunday de Janeiro. The 18-year-old from Jhajjar, Haryana, who had won individual gold and team silver in the 10m air pistol at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, overcame a slow start in the 24-shot final and showed nerves of steel to steadily climb the leaderboard and ultimately a score of 217.6.
She finally bowed out after the 22nd shot and settled for third place.
Armenian Elmira Karapetyan won gold, while Thai teenager Kamonlak Saencha took silver and the second available quota place.
India has now made available up to 16 Olympic spots in Paris for a country in pistol and rifle events.
The country's shotgun shooters can still earn four places in Paris in the men's and women's trap and skeet events when the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship (Shotgun) begins on April 19 in Doha.
Palak and Sainyam had qualified for the eight-women final on Saturday, placing sixth and seventh respectively with identical scores of 578.
Except for Karpetyan, who had already booked her quota in previous competitions, all other finalists could claim the available berths in Paris.
Both Palak and Sainyam had a forgettable start to the final but came back strongly even as Saencha and Hungary's experienced Veronika Major threatened to pull away from the field in the early stages with sublime shooting.
Palak and Sainyam struggled to get past the fifth position before the eliminations began. However, things turned the way for the Indians when Major had a meltdown.
Before the 19th shot, Palak took a lead of 0.6 over Major, while Sainyam finished in fifth place.
The Hungarian could not hit the 10 ring, as the Indian once did, sealing the quota place.
Karapetyan (240.7) took gold on the final shot when Saencha (240.5) crumbled with a poor shot that earned her an 8.6.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article