Kynan Chenai secures Rio quota, Vijay misses out

Trap shooter Kynan Chenai capped one of the best days in his short career, securing an Olympic quota berth with a strong show at the Asia qualifying competition here on Thursday. The 26-year-old defied the odds to finish fourth and grab one of the four quotas available in the men’s trap event on Day Two of the event at the Karni Singh ranges.

However, London Games silver medallist Vijay Kumar faltered and missed out on a berth.

Chenai, who celebrates his birthday on Friday, was elated with the effort.

“This is the biggest achievement of my career. Now, winning a medal in the Olympics will depend on my training and work on my physical and mental aspects,” he said after the event.

Chenai qualified for the finals shooting a score of 120 (47/50 and 73/75).

In the final rounds that saw six shooters in action, Chenai was tied with three others after the first 15 shots with a score of 12 to reach the semi-finals stage, thereby assuring the 10th quota for India from shooting.

In the bronze medal shoot-off with Kuwait’s Talal Al-Rashidi, Chenai missed two of his 15 shots to his opponent’s one.

Another international shooting participant Abdulrahman Al Faihan won the gold in the trap event, while Chinese Taipei’s Yang Kun-Pi clinched the silver. The other three quotas in the event went to Kuwait, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan.

In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, Vijay began strongly in the qualifiers with a top score of 576, but struggled to keep up the momentum in the final.

In the six-man final, Vijay finished fifth and was the second to be eliminated.

The two quotas in this event were bagged by gold medallist Teruyoshi Akiyama and bronze winner Eita Mori of Japan. Korea’s Yong Hoo Choi took the silver. Korea could not claim quotas in this event as they had already exhausted their share in earlier competitions.