India to begin quest for final Paris Olympics quota in Pistol

Three Indian women air pistol shooters are all set to begin their quest for the lone remaining quota place left to be won in the pistol discipline overall, as the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Final Olympic Qualification Championship Rifle/Pistol, gets underway in the Brazilian city of Rio De Janeiro from Friday.

Two teenagers, Asian Games champion Palak and Chandigarh’s Sainyam, as well as Palak’s Haryana teammate Surbhi Rao, will try and claim the second Paris Olympics quota place in Women’s 10m Air Pistol.

It will be India’s 20th quota place in Shooting, which will also ensure a possible 24th and 25th start for the squad in Paris, come the end of July.

Indian shooters have already won a record 19 quota places for the Paris 2024 Games, including all eight in Rifle, seven in Pistol and four in Shotgun. Esha Singh had earlier in the year won the first Women’s Air Pistol quota place with a gold medal finish at the Asia Olympic Qualifiers in Jakarta.

Palak, Sainyam and Surbhi, currently ranked third, fifth and sixth in the discipline in India, take aim on Saturday for the qualification round, with the top eight qualifiers competing in the final slated for Sunday.

The three shooters have been accompanied by two coaches and a physio.

The 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team, is the first final scheduled on the opening day of competitions on Friday. A total of 466 athletes from 76 nations have entered the fray.