Chinki Yadav shoots her way to Tokyo 2020 spot

India’s shooters continued their fine showing at the 14th Asian Championships in Doha, Qatar as youngster Chinki Yadav secured yet another Tokyo 2020 berth for the nation.

The 21-year-old finished second after qualification in the Women’s 25m Air Pistol category to make the cut for the Olympics next year, as there were four quota places up for grabs and the others in the final have either already qualified or achieved the maximum quota places.

Yadav won India’s second Olympic quota in her category following Rahi Sarnobat’s triumph at the ISSF Munich World Cup earlier this year.

Stellar showing

Taking part in her very first Asian Championships, the young markswoman showed no signs of nerves in the qualification round. She started off with a near-perfect score of 99 in the first round, getting into the leaderboard from the very beginning.

Yadav then capitalised on that good start with scores of 97, 96, 99, 97 in the subsequent rounds to give herself a brilliant chance of making it to the finals. The 21-year-old ended the final qualification round in some style as she scored a perfect 100 to finish in second place with a score of 588.

India’s other pistol shooters - Annu Raj Singh and Neeraj Kaur - finished 21st and 27th respectively and could not make it past the qualification round.

While Yadav was brilliant in qualification, she could not replicate that form in the final as she was soon eliminated and finished in sixth place at the Asian Championships with a score of 16. Despite that elimination, there was reason to celebrate for the Indian as she claimed the nation’s 11th Olympic quota for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Thailand’s Naphaswan Yangpaiboon won the gold medal while Mongolia’s Gundegmaa Otryad and China’s Jingjing Zhang bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

Second place for Sidhu

There was further cause for celebration for India’s marksmen in Doha as youngster Udayveer Sidhu finished in second place in the Men’s 25m Standard Pistol category. Udayveer finished just a point behind China’s Yao Zhaonan who bagged the top prize with a score of 578. India’s Vijayveer Sidhu finished in fourth place with a score of 572.