Manu Bhaker missed a medal by 0.1 point but captured the more important Olympic quota place in women’s air pistol in the shooting World Cup here on Wednesday.
Despite shooting a 10.3, the best among the four shooters at the halfway stage of the final, Manu was overtaken by eventual gold medallist Anna Korakaki of Greece.
The 17-year-old Manu had by then ensured her Olympic quota as both Korakaki and bronze medallist Kim Minjung of Korea had already secured their quota. Silver medallist, Chinese Qian Wei secured the other quota.
After having missed the 25-metre sports pistol quota on Tuesday, in an agonising fashion after being the joint leader, owing to a second malfunction of her gun, it was welcome change of fortune for Manu, guided by the multiple Asian Games gold medallist Jaspal Rana.
Manu was also brilliant in qualifying, finishing third with a score of 582, behind Olena Kostevych of Ukraine, who equalled the World record with 587, and Julieta Mautone Jimenez of Uruguay, who shot a junior World record of 585.
Two-time Olympian Heena Sidhu shot 570 for the 45th place, while Yashaswini Singh Deswal did relatively better with 574 for 22nd spot.
Manu’s quota is India’s seventh for Tokyo 2020, behind Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Abhishek Verma and Rahi Sarnobat.
Earlier, Sunidhi Chauhan shot 1175 in women’s rifle 3-position event and missed the final on lesser inner-10s. Yulia Zykova of Russia, who had also shot 1175, went on to win the gold, 0.2 point ahead of Seonaid McIntosh of Britain.
India continues to stay on top of the medals table ahead of China.
In men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol, Arpit Goel (577), Adarsh Singh (571) and Anish Bhanwala (567) fared below their best and did not stand a chance to make the final.
The results: Women: 10m air pistol: 1. Anna Korakaki (Gre) 241.4 (582); 2. Qian Wei (Chn 239. (580)6; 3. Kim Minjung (Kor) 220.8 (578); 4. Manu Bhaker 201.0 (582); 22. Yashaswini Singh Deswal 574; 45. Heena Sidhu 570. MQS: Shweta Singh 576; P. Shri Nivetha 565.
50m rifle 3-position: 1. Yulia Zykova (Rus) 461.6 (1175); 2. Seonaid McIntosh (G.Br) 461.4 (1176); 3. Katrine Lund (Nor) 450.2 (1177); 9. Sunidhi Chauhan 1175; 52. Gaayathri Nithyanandam 1162; 70. Kajal Saini 1140. MQS: Anjum Moudgil 1166.
