ISSF World Championship: Sift Kaur Samra earns sixth quota place for India; finished fifth

Sift Kaur Samra earned India its sixth Paris Olympic quota place, finishing fifth in the women's 50m rifle three positions event

Baku: Upcoming shooter Sift Kaur Samra earned India its sixth Paris Olympic quota place, finishing fifth in the women’s 50m rifle three positions event at the ISSF World Championship her on Monday.

The 21-year-old, who had earlier this month won gold in her favourite event at the World University Games in Chengdu, China, aggregated 429.1 in the finals.

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Samra, who had won her maiden individual medal at the international level — a bronze at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Bhopal in March this year — fought hard to emerge fifth at the end of the qualification round, scoring 589.

She had a ‘kneeling’ score of 192 and shot superb 199 and 198 in ‘prone’ and ‘standing’ positions.

However in the finals, Samra slipped to eighth early on in the ‘kneeling’ position but pulled herself up in ‘prone’ and ‘standing’ to climb steadily to fifth.

China’s Zhang Qiongyue (465.3) claimed the gold medal, while countrymate Han Jiaye (463.5) bagged silver. USA’s Sagen Maddalena was third with a score of 451.9.

The Indian trio comprising Samra (589), Ashi Chouksey (590) and Manini Kaushik (582) finished fifth in the team category with an aggregate of 1761.

This is the third Paris Olympic quota for India at the World Championship, with Mehuli Ghosh (women’s 10m air rifle) and 28-year-old Akhil Sheoran (50m rifle 3-positions) the other two.

Overall, India has so far won six Paris quota places.

Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap), Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (men’s 10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale (men’s 50m rifle 3 positions) are the other three Indians to have secured the 2024 Olympics quota places at last year’s ISSF World Championships.