Rahi Sarnobat shot a near-perfect final to climb to the bronze medal from eighth spot and grabbed an Olympic quota place in the process in the women's 25-metre sport pistol, in the shooting World Cup in Fort Benning, US, on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Rahi shot the best among the eight finalists with a score of 207.7, in which all her 20 shots, in four series of five each, were 10s. Her average was almost a breathtaking 10.4 for each shot.
However, a qualifying score of 582 saw her miss the silver by 0.1 point to Beijing Olympics silver medallist Gundegmaa Otryad of Mongolia, who had shot 585 in the preliminary phase, and subsequently secured the first of the two Olympic quota places in the event.
Beijing Olympic gold medallist Chen Ying of China equalled the final World record score of 796.7 following an impressive qualification score of 591, to bag the gold streets ahead of the rest in a field of 79.
The results:Women: 25m sport pistol: 1. Chen Ying (Chn) 796.7 (EFWR) 591; 2. Gundegmaa Otryad (Mgl) 789.8 (585); 3. Rahi Sarnobat 789.7 (582); 7. Anisa Sayyed 787.0 (587); 33. Annu Raj Singh 574. MQS: Sonia Rai 577; Shweta Chaudhry 552.
