Shooter Shriyanka Sadangi wins Olympic quota for India

NEW DELHI: Shriyanka Sadangi grabbed India’s 13th Paris Olympics quota when she finished fourth in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) event at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea on Tuesday. Shriyanka shot 440.5, to bow out after the 43rd shot of the 45-shot final, equally distributed between the kneeling, prone and standing positions. Experienced Korean Lee Eunseo clinched the gold while reigning air rifle world champion Han Jiayu of China won silver. China also took the bronze through Xia Siyu. All Indian women shooters in the 3P competition were on top of their mark from the qualification stage itself. Sift Kaur Samra, India’s number one, shot 592 playing for ranking points only (RPO) to soar to the top of the field. Ashi Chouksey shot 591 to take the first qualifying spot among contenders and second overall. Shriyanka and Ayushi Podder made the top eight with scores of 588 and 587 respectively. Manini Kaushik, shooting RPO as well, was 10th overall with a tally of 586. Shriyanka was the hottest off the blocks among the three Indians in the final beginning with a 10.9. She was second with 51.3 after the first five kneeling shots, while Ayushi and Ashi were lying sixth and seventh respectively. After 10-shots, Han and Lee were already 1-2 and at the end of it Shriyanka had replaced Ayushi in fourth, a position she would hold till the end. The prone position saw Ashi begin her move up while Shriyanka consolidated her fourth spot. Ayushi fell behind to seventh. Lee had taken over the lead from Han. The fourth shot in the standing position was telling for both Shriyanka and Ashi as the former shot a 10. 8 while the latter an 8.7. An Indian quota was confirmed after the first 10 shots in the standing position when Korean Bae Sanghee and Ayushi bowed out in the eighth and seventh respectively. Going into the final five single-shots in fifth and sixth positions, Shriyanka shot 10.1 to Ashi’s 9.8 as the former confirmed the quota in her name. Arina Altukhova of Kazakhstan was out next, but she too had picked up one of the two available Paris quotas. With 1.6 between her and China’s Xia, Shriyanka shot a 10.0 for her 43rd to finish a creditable fourth.