Esha Singh and Varun Tomar won the Olympic quota with gold medals in the men’s and women’s air pistol in the Asian shooting championship in Jakarta on Monday.
Indian shooting took its tally to 15 Olympic quota places for the Paris Games. It was the second Olympic quota in men’s air pistol, and the first in women’s air pistol.
Esha, who had won four medals in the Asian Games, was in irrepressible form as she outclassed the field, wining the gold with a 6.8 point margin over Kishmala Talat of Pakistan.
Rhythm Sangwan won the bronze, while the third Indian, Surbhi Rao was sixth. The trio won the team gold.
Varun defeated compatriot Arjun Singh Cheema by 2.3 points for the gold and the Olympic quota. He had earlier topped qualification with 586. Since a country can win only one Olympic quota in a championship, the second quota went to Davaakhuu Enkhtaivan of Mongolia, the bronze medallist.
The Indian men’s team also bagged the gold, 13 points ahead of Korea, even though the third shooter, Ujjawal Malik, was placed 20th with 575.
India, thus, topped the medals table on the opening day with four gold, one silver and one bronze while China followed with a gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
The results:
10m air pistol: Men: 1. Varun Tomar 239.6 (586); 2. Arjun Singh Cheema 237.3 (579); 3. Davaakhuu Enkhtaivan (Mgl) 217.2 (579); 20. Ujjawal Malik 575. RPO: Sagar Dangi 578. Team: 1. India 1740, 2. Iran 1732, 3. Korea 1732.
Women: 1. Esha Singh 243.1 (578) ; 2. Kishmala Talat (Pak) 236.3 (575); 3. Rhythm Sangwan 214.5 (579); 6. Surbhi Rao 154.0 (579). Team: 1. India 1736, 2. Korea 1723, 3. Indonesia 1709.
