Swapnil Kusale secured India’s third Paris Olympic quota by finishing fourth in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position final at the ISSF World Shooting Championships here on Saturday. The first quota for India was bagged by Bhaunish Mendiratta in the men’s trap event while the second quota was bagged by Rudraksh Balasaheb Patil in the 10m air rifle event. Rhythm Sangwan missed out on securing a quota in the women’s 25m pistol event by a narrow margin.
India secured the first two places in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Junior event, taking India’s medal tally to 32. This includes 12 gold medals, eight silver medals and 12 bronze medals. Kusale had made it to the eight-player final after finishing second with 593 points in the qualification. He was once close to making it to the gold medal match but his last shot was poor, scoring only 8.2 points.
Kusale’s overall score was 407.6 while bronze medalist John Hermann Hague of Norway scored 407.9. Serhi Kulish of Ukraine defeated Tomas Bartnik of Poland 16-6 in the gold medal match. India’s Aishwarya Pratap Singh finished 14th with 589 points and Neeraj Kumar finished 19th with 588 points. Sagar Dangi and Shikha Narwal finished first in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Junior category with 580 out of 600 to reach the finals where they faced compatriots Isha Singh and Samrat Rana who finished second in qualification with 579 points. . Sagar and Shikha registered a 17-15 win in the final.
