Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anish Bhanwala bagged India’s 12th Paris Olympic quota in shooting as he clinched a bronze medal in the men’s 25m rapid pistol fire event at the Asian Championships in Changwon, Korea, on Monday.
The 21-year-old from Karnal, who had 28 hits in the final, lost a shoot-out to Japan’s Dai Yoshioka, who won the silver medal.
Local favourite Lee Gunhyeok took home the gold with a score of 34 in the eight five-shot rapid-fire series decider.
Bhanwala fetched the quota for the Paris Games by ending the qualification stage in third place with a score of 588, just one behind China’s Wang Xinjie who topped the field.
Three Chinese made the six-man final as the Indian took the third qualifying spot behind world champion Li Yuehong on countback.
It was enough to give him one of the two available 2024 Olympics spots, given that China had exhausted their quotas and Lee and Dai had also secured their Paris Games berths in earlier competitions.
Among other Indians, Bhavesh Shekhawat shot 584 to be among the top eight in the qualification but could not enter the final as he was competing for ranking points only. He was not eligible for the final.
The men’s trap trio won India a silver in the team competition as Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai (111) and Prithviraj Tondaiman (111) shot a total of 341 to finish three behind Qatar.
