Tejaswini Sawant seals India’s first women's quota for 3 position rifle shooting
The former World Champion finished fifth in qualification to make the cut for Tokyo 2020.
India’s shooters continued to excel at the 14th Asian Championships with rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant becoming the latest to win a quota place for the 2020 Olympic Games. Plying her trade in the women’s 3 position Air Rifle category, the 39-year-old finished fifth in qualification with a score of 1171.
That performance was enough for Sawant to pocket a quota place for the 2020 Olympics as five of the eight finalists have either already qualified for the Games or their respective nations have already achieved the maximum quota places allocated.
Sawant joins the likes of Manu Bhaker, Apurvi Chandela, Deepak Kumar and a few others who have already won quotas for Tokyo 2020 in their respective categories.
Consistent performance
India’s Sawant showed great consistency in kneeling, prone as well as standing shooting. She recorded scores of 99, 98, 96 in the first round, to always keen herself in the reckoning for a place in the final.
Prone shooting remained her strong suit on the day as she recorded a cumulative score of 394 in that position after four rounds.
Sawant faltered a bit in the standing positon, only managing 383 after four rounds but that didn’t hamper her overall score as she finished in fifth position after qualification with a tally of 1171 to make the cut for the final.
India’s Kajal Saini and Gayathri Nithyanandam also performed admirably in Doha, but narrowly missed out on a place in the final, finishing in 13th and 16th place respectively.
Fourth place finish
Sawant continued her fine form in the final, and only narrowly missed out on a place at the podium, as she finished in fourth place with a score of 435.8. China’s Mengyao Shi bagged the gold with a score of 457.9, while Mongolia’s Yesugen Oyunbat and Japan’s Shiori Hirata won the silver and bronze respectively.