Rajput qualifies for Beijing Olympics shooting competition

New Delhi, Apr 5 (UNI) Sanjeev Rajput finished 11th in men's 50m rifle three position event at ISSF World Cup at Fort Benning in USA, but that was enough for him to book a berth for next year's Beijing olympics.

Rajput shot his personal best of 1170 out of 1200 (Prone 395, Standing 384, Kneeling 391), but failed to qualify for the finals. He was awarded the quota place as all the top ten finishers had already qualified for the Olympics.

His previous best was 1165 at the World Cup in China last year.

The 26-year-old Haryana shooter, who won a bronze in the men's 50m rifle three position team event at the Asian Games in Doha, thus became the seventh Indian shooter to win an olympic quota place.

Rajput had also won a bronze at Melbourne Commonwealth Games in the men's 50m rifle prone event and had recently won four gold medals in the National Games at Guwahati.

Abhinav Bindra (men's 10m Air Rifle), Gagan Narang (men's 10m Air Rifle), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (men's double trap), Anjali Bhagwat (women's 50m Rifle 3 position), Avneet Kaur Sidhu (women's 10m Air rifle) and Manavjeet Singh Sandhu (men's trap event) had already qualified for the Olympics.

''I am extremely happy to be able to win the olympic quota for India with a personal best score so far, although I could have easily managed two to three points more had I not been troubled by the winds during my last series in the kneeling position, two points more would have also ensured me a place in the finals,'' an elated Rajput said after his fine effort.

Meanwhile, ace shooter Gagan Narang, struggling with a knee injury, finished 38th with a score of 1154 (Prone 395, Standing 384, Kneeling 375) while the third Indian in the event, Imran Hassan Khan, finished 46th with a score of 1151 (Prone 388, Standing 380, Kneeling 383), according to information received here today.

The gold in the event was won by Artem Khadjibekov of Russia who shot 1276.2 (1175+101.2) while the silver was won by Zhambo Jia of China with a score of 1272.0 (1174+98.0). Artur Aivaziam of Ukaraine won the bronze with 1271.6 (1174+97.6) In the women's 50m rifle three position event, Meena Kumari finished 22nd with 575 (Prone 199, Standing 186 and Kneeling 190), Deepali Deshpande finished 30th with a score of 572 (Prone 198, Standing 185, Kneeling 189) while Tejaswini Sawant finished 53rd with a score of 561 (Prone 189, Standing 185, Kneeling 187).

The gold in the event was won by Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany with a score of 685.6 (585+100.6), silver was won by Yin Wen of China with a score of 685.1 (584+101.1) while the bronze was won by Germany's Barbara Lechner with a score of 683.3 (586+97.3).

Earlier yesterday, Harveen Srao and Amanpreet Singh had missed Olympic berths in women's air-pistol and men's 10 metres air pistol events respectively.

Srao had shot a total of 478.3 points to finish eighth in the final round and narrowly miss the Olympic quota, while Amanpreet finished 11th with a score of 578.

In the women's air-pistol event, Shweta Chowdhary had finished 13th with a score of 381 points.

UNI