Gurpreet Singh becomes fifth Indian shooter to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics

Gurpreet Singh secured India a fifth quota place in shooting for the Rio Olympics by finishing fourth in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich on Sunday.

Gurpreet scored 154 in the final, finishing behind winner Joao Costa (201.4 points) of Portugal. Sun Yang (177.3) was third, securing a quota place for China, while Tomoyuki (200.4) Matsuda of Japan won the silver. Another quota place went to fifth placed Daemyung Lee (136) of South Korea.

Ace shooter Jitu Rai surprisingly failed to make the final of the same event.

The positive result for Gurpreet comes a day after the disappointment of missing a quota place in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol where a fourth place was not enough.

He is the second Indian to have secured a Rio berth at the ongoing World Cup. Abhinav Bindra, India’s only individual Olympic gold-medallist, won a quota place with a sixth place finish in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle final.

Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela are the other Indians to have secured an Olympic quota place.

Narang did so after finishing third in the 50m Rifle Prone Event of the ISSF World Cup at Fort Benning in USA earlier this month.

Chandela had secured the quota place by winning the bronze in the 10m Rifle at World Cup in Korea last month, while pistol ace Rai had won India’s first Olympic quota place at the World Championships in Granada, Spain last year, when he won a silver in the 50m Free Pistol event.

Each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events), two each from each discipline. National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh said he was extremely happy with Gurpreet’s achievement.

“Gurpreet has been working very hard off late and I am extremely happy that his hard work has resulted in India earning its fifth quota place for the Rio Olympics 2016. His back-to-back performance in two days only showcases his mental strength and the fact that he has the mettle to be amongst the best shooters in the country,” said Raninder.

“I am also glad that alongside the veterans, India have a very strong bench as we get close to the Rio Olympics next year,” he added.

Gurpreet, a subedar, is currently training at Army Marksmanship Unit at Mhow.