Chinki Yadav bags India's 11th Olympic quota, misses medal

Doha : Chinki Yadav seured India's 11th Tokyo Olympic quota in shooting with a career-best qualification score of 588 but could not win a medal at the 14th Asian Championship here on Friday.

The national championship silver and junior world championship bronze-medallist, however, could not replicate her qualification form in the final, only managing a sixth-place finish with a score of 116.

Daughter of an electrician in the Madhya Pradesh government's sports department in Bhopal, Chinki finished a creditable second in the qualifications of women's 25m pistol event at the Lusail Shooting Range.

"I cannot explain how happy I am. This has been my best ever performance. I would like to credit my coaches, especially Jaspal sir for this as well as all those who have supported me including everyone in the Bhopal academy and the NRAI," Chinki said after the event.

The 21-year-old Chinki shot a perfect 100 to finish second in the qualification stage with an aggregate of 588, behind Thailand's Naphaswan Yangpaiboon (590).

Qualifying for the final was enough for Chinki to book an Olympic quota place for the country as four of the eight finalists had already secured their quotas in earlier competitions.

There were four quotas on offer in the ongoing prestigious tournament. It's the country's second quota spot in 25m pistol event after Rahi Sarnobat won the first at the World Cup in Munich earlier this year.

Other Indians in the fray, Annu Raj Singh (575) and Neeraj Kaur (572) finished 21st and 27th respectively. Chinki, who is also interested in painting, has appeared in four ISSF World Cups in her maiden year.

Her best score in the qualifications before this was 584, which she shot in the Rio World Cup earlier this year. She thanked national coach Jaspal Rana after experiencing one of the best days of her shooting career.

Chinki has been doing active shooting since 2012 but this is her first year with the senior national team. India have already bagged Olympic quota places in 10m air rifle (men and women), 50m rifle 3 position (men), 10m air pistol (men and women) and 25m air pistol (women).

Meanwhile, Vivaan Kapoor and Esha Singh won two gold each as India dominated the junior competitions, where they have accounted for 18 of the 23 medals won so far by the country.

Bhakti Bhaskar Khamkar bagged India's fifth gold of the day, in 50m rifle 3 positions women junior, with a score of 453.1 in the final.

Bhakti, Ayushi Podder and Nishchal also won the team silver in the event while the trio of Niraj Kumar, Harshrajsinhji Gohil and Nitish Kumar also did the same in the 50m rifle 3 positions men junior event. Niraj also picked up the individual silver.