Shooter Gurpreet Singh Finishes Fourth in Munich World Cup, Misses Olympic Quota

Indian Army marksman Gurpreet Singh on Saturday finished fourth in the Men's 25-metre Rapid Fire Pistol event at the World Cup shooting competition to miss a berth for the 2016 Rio Olympics here.

The 28-year-old Gurpreet looked in good shape at one stage to take the silver before slipping to the fourth post a three-way tie and a shoot-off in the second stage of the final.

American Keith Sanderson and Alexi Klimov of Russia bagged the silver and bronze medal respectively.

Two quota places were up for grabs in the event as German gold medal winner Christian Reitz had already sealed his quota earlier and Gurpreet had to finish among the top-3 to bag the quota but he let it slip out of his hand.

Earlier, Gurpreet had scored 581 in the qualification round to make it to the final as the fourth best shooter, ahead of Sanderson, who qualified in sixth position.

His fourth place finish is still Gurpreet's best performance of the year after disappointing performances in the earlier World Cups in Changwon and Fort Benning. He had finished fourth way back in 2010.

A double Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Gurpreet had won a bronze at the Asian Championships in Tehran two years ago.

Indian trio of Gagan Narang, Chain Singh and Surendra Singh Rathod crashed out from the qualification rounds of the Men's 50m Rifle Prone event.

Chain was the best finisher among the three, scoring 623 for a 21st place spot, while Narang and Rathod shot 615.3 and 612.5 respectively, to finish 63rd and 69th.

Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra had ensured India their fourth quota place on the opening day of the competition with a sixth place finish in the Men's 10m Air Rifle event.

Among other Indian shooters, Jitu Rai, Gagan Narang and Apurvi Chandela have already booked an Olympic quota.