Rhythm Sangwan claims Paris Olympic quota for India

JAKARTA: Shooter Rhythm Sanhwan secured another Paris Olympics 2024 quota for India, clinching a bronze medal in women's 25-meter pistol event at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.

This is India's 16th quota for shooting in the upcoming Olympics, surpassing the record tally of 15 for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as per Olympics.com.

In the final, Rhythm shot 28/45 and settled for a bronze, with Republic of Korea Jiin Yang and Yeji Kim shooting 41/50 and 32/50 for gold and silver respectively.

A country can get a maximum of two quotas per event at the Paris Olympics. Since South Korea already had two quotas in this category, the Olympic quotas were given to India and Chinese Taipei. Rhythm secured the top spot in qualification round and had a combined score of 588 in the rapid and precision rounds.

Divya TS, competing for ranking points only, secured 11th place with 578 points.

Asian Games silver medalist Esha Singh, who had already clinched an Olympic quota for India in the women's 10 m air pistol category with a gold medal, came 14th with 578 points, followed by Simranpreet Kaur Brar (577) and Rahi Sarnobat (576), in 15th and 17th places, respectively.

India had a combined score of 1,743 in the qualifying round, with Rhythm Sangwan, Esha Singh and Simranpreet Kaur Brar helping India get a silver medal in the women's 25-meter pistol team event.

India has secured three Olympic quotas in the championship so far, with the help of Varun Tomar, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan. Varun secured a 10 m air pistol men's gold on Monday.