Shooters eye last chance to book Rio spots

Some of the country’s top shooters, including Vijay Kumar, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Heena Sidhu, will make one last attempt to secure quota places for the 2016 Olympics in the Asia Olympic qualifying competition that gets under way at the Karni Singh ranges here from Wednesday.

The eight-day event will see as many as 575 shooters from 32 nations vying for 35 quota places.

Eleven Indian shooters took part in the London Games, and the contingent will hope to better that mark this time around. So far, eight shooters have secured quotas for Rio.

While there will be four quotas each for men in trap and skeet, women have one apiece. The men’s and women’s 3-position rifle and women’s sports pistol will offer three quota berths each while the other events will have two quota places each.

Vijay has not been able to produce any notable performance since his London Olympics silver medal winning effort in the men’s 25-m rapid fire pistol.

A perennial shoulder injury played a role in Vijay’s slump in form. The 30-year-old armyman will look to make a comeback through this event following months of training and rehabilitation. He will compete in his pet event here.

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 medal was a gold at the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Tucson, USA.

In the 10m air pistol event, Delhi Commonwealth Games silver medallist Omkar Singh will be one of the favourites to secure a quota. Jitendra Vibhute and Aman Pathania are the other Indians in the event.

Omkar will be part of men’s 50m pistol event, which will also have Jitu Rai and Prakash Nanjappa — already with Olympic spots.

Heena, the first Indian pistol shooter to be ranked world number one, will eye a repeat of last September’s performance at the venue. The 26-year-old won the gold in the Asian Airgun Championship.

Sidhu was also the finals world record holder in 10m air pistol event with a score of 203.8.

The women’s field will also include 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.