Apurvi Chandela wins 10m air rifle gold at Munich WC

Apurvi Chandela on Sunday won the gold in women's 10m air rifle at the ISSF World Cup in Munich. The 26-year-old shot 251 points in the final to pip China's Luyao Wang's score of 250.8. This was Apurvi's second gold of the year, having won the first at the Delhi World Cup in February.

Her compatriot Elavenil Valarivan, however, narrowly missed out on a medal after finishing fourth behind China's Xu Hong. The 19-year-old, who won gold in the junior event of the Sydney World Cup in 2018, shot 208.3 while Xu Hong finished with a score of 229.4.

Indian shooters are competing for 12 of the 17 Tokyo Olympic quotas available in Munich, having already secured five quota places in rifle and pistol competitions.

Chandela and Anjum Mudgil were the first to secure their places. Saurabh Chaudhary then sealed the third quota place with a world record score at the Delhi World Cup in February.

The fourth and fifth spots were taken by Divyansh Singh Panwar and Abhishek Verma, respectively, at the Beijing World Cup.

Indians therefore had to forfeit their right to quotas in the women's 10m air rifle and men's 10m air pistol events. Panwar's victory in Beijing means that only one Olympic quota is available for the Indians in the men's 10m air rifle event in Munich.--IANS

rkm/arm