Asian Shooting Championship: Chinki Yadav finishes fifth in first round of women's 25m pistol qualifier, keeps Olympic hopes alive

Doha: Chinki Yadav kept alive India’s hopes of securing the second Olympic quota in women’s 25m Pistol, clinging to fifth place in the first round qualification of the Asian Shooting Championship on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_4585071” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty[/caption] Chinki shot an exceptional 292 and will be looking to make the final on Friday and take a shot at clinching one of the four available Tokyo berths. Rahi Sarnobat has already secured the other quota place for India in the event in earlier competitions. Apart from Chinki, Vivaan Kapoor and Esha Singh won two gold each as India dominated the junior competitions, where they have accounted for 18 of the 23 medals won so far by the country. The icing on the cake at the Lusail Shooting complex was the 1-2 finish in the junior men’s trap competition where Vivaan shot his way to an individual gold with compatriot Bhowneesh Mendiratta following him through the day to clinch silver. The pair also combined with Manavaditya Singh Rathore to secure the team gold in the event. Vivaan, who picked up his second and third yellow metal of the competition after winning the junior trap mixed team event on day one partnering Manisha Keer, continued his good form by topping qualification with a solid 120 out of 125. Bhowneesh was second with 118, while Manavaditya missed out on the final, finishing eighth with a score of 109. Vivaan then missed five birds in the final but still emerged triumphant, with a score of 45, as Bhowneesh missed eight for the silver. Li Siwei of China won bronze. Teenager Esha also won a double gold on the day, capturing both the individual and team titles in the 10m air pistol women junior competition. Esha topped the qualification with a 579 and then won the finals with a 242.2. Teammate Priya Raghav was third in qualification with 574 and finished in the same position in the final, closing out with a 217.6. Jeong Hyo of Korea won silver while Esha, Priya and Yuvika Tomar claimed the team gold with a total of 1721, which eclipsed both the Asian and world junior records in the category. Bhakti Bhaskar Khamkar won India’s fifth gold of the day, in 50m rifle 3 positions women junior, with a dominating 453.1 in the final. Bhakti, Ayushi Podder and Nishchal also won the team silver in the event. So did the trio of Niraj Kumar, Harshrajsinhji Gohil and Nitish Kumar in the 50m rifle 3 positions men junior event. Niraj also picked up the individual silver.