Anish bags Paris quota in rapid fire pistol

When 21-year-old Anish Bhanwala won a Paris Olympics quota for India in rapid fire pistol with a bronze at the Asian Championships in Changwon on Monday, it perhaps marked the start of a transition that has been on hold for a while.

Back in 2017, Bhanwala had emerged as a special talent in pistol shooting when he won two world junior titles and followed it up with a gold medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in rapid fire pistol. Anish was just 15.

Since then, it was a long period of struggle for the Haryana shooter to make a mark at the senior international level. On several occasions he came close to winning a medal but the podium finish kept eluding him. Even at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Anish finished a lowly 22nd in the individual competition, though he came back with a team bronze.

At the shooting range in Changwon, Anish shot with purpose to end his long dry spell. In the two-stage qualification, he shot 588 and finished third to make the cut for the six-shooter final. In fact, after the first precision stage of qualifying on Sunday, Anish shot 294 and was among the leaders. He was equally impressive in the rapid-fire stage on Monday (294). China’s Wang Xinjie topped the field (589), while world champion Li Yuehong — also from China — was tied with Anish on 588 but qualified at second place on countback.

In the final, Anish shot consistently (28 points) before losing the shoot-off for the silver medal with Dai Yoshioka of Japan. Korea’s Lee Gunhyeok won gold with a score of 34.

The Paris quota was India’s fifth from the competition. So far, Indian shooters have won 12 quota places for the Paris Olympics.

Other Indian shooters in fray in the event missed out on qualification. Vijayveer Sidhu shot 581 to finish 10th overall while Adarsh Singh finished in 25th place with a score of 570.

In trap, the men’s team of Zoravar Singh Sandhu (119), Kynan Chenai (111) and Prithviraj Tondaiman (111) won wilver with a total of 341. India finished three points behind gold medallists Qatar. Zoravar also qualified for the final but finished sixth.

After their highly successful outing at the Asian Games, Indian shooters have continued with their impressive run in Changwon. India have so far won 30 medals from the continental event including eight gold.