Indian Shooters Eager to Earn Olympic Quota Spots at Last Qualifying Event
Top Indian shooters like Vijay Kumar, Heena Sidhu, Omkar Singh would hope to earn Olympic quota spot at him in the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition
Indian shooters will look to come out all guns blazing as the likes of Heena Sidhu, Vijay Kumar and Manavjit Singh Sandhu make one last attempt to secure quota places for Rio Games in the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition starting here on Wednesday. (Read more sports stories here)
London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar, former world number one shooters Heena and Manavjit are yet to earn quotas for the quadrennial extravaganza scheduled to take place in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in August.
The prestigious Asian event, to be held from January 27 to February 3 at the Karni Singh Range, will see participation of 575 shooters from 32 nations for 35 quota places.
Eleven Indian shooters had taken part in the London Games finals four years ago, and the Indian contingent is hoping to better that mark this time around. So far, eight Indian shooters have secured quotas for Rio Olympics.
Pooja Ghatkar, Ayonika Paul, Sanjeev Rajput, Rahi Sarnobat and Lajja Gauswami will also look forward to secure quota places in the tournament.
There will be four quotas each for men in trap and skeet, but only one apiece for women. The men's and women's 3-position rifle and women's sports pistol will offer three quotas each while the other events will have two quota places each.
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Vijay Kumar hopes to put up good show
A silver medallist in men's 25-m rapid fire pistol, Vijay has not won anything of note on the world stage since finishing on the podium in London. A perennial shoulder injury played a role in Vijay's slump in form.
Heena, the first Indian pistol shooter to be ranked number one, a feat she achieved after winning gold medal in the ISSF World Cup finals in 2013, will aim to scale similar heights.
Veteran trap shooter Manavjit, a three-time Olympian, will also look to hit the bull's eye and book a ticket to the Rio Games. The 39-year-old's last major medal was winning the gold at the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Tucson, USA.
Manavjit will be vying for honours alongside Kynan Chenai and Prithviraj Tondaiman in the trap event, while the Indian challenge in men's double trap will be spearheaded by Ankur Mittal, Mohammad Asab and the returning Ronjan Sodhi.
It is a chance for Sodhi to get back into form after a prolonged lean spell that led to him being dropped from the Indian squad. With the sole exception of Olympics, the modest trap shooter has won almost everything.
All eyes on Omkar Singh
Long harbouring dreams of winning a quota, Omkar Singh's momentum met with a setback when when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait last November of its status as a qualifying tournament for Rio 2016.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist will be one of the frontrunners for a quota in the 10m air pistol event. The other two Indians in the event are Jitendra Vibhute and Aman Pathania.
Omkar will also be part of men's 50m pistol event in which he will be competing alongside the prolific Jitu Rai and Prakash Nanjappa. Both Rai and Nanjappa, though, have already secured Olympic quotas.
Besides Heena, the women's field will have a host of established shooters gunning for glory. Ayonika Paul, Pooja Ghatkar (10m air rifle), Tejaswini Sawant, Lajja Gauswami (50m rifle 3 position) and Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed (25m sports pistol), among others, will be in the fray.