Shooter Gurpreet qualifies for 2016 olympics

Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gurpreet Singh on Sunday became India's fifth shooter to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games finishing fourth in the 10m Air Pistol category at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/ Pistol here.

The 28-year-old shot a total of 154.8 points to finish fourth in the Final. Joao Costa of Portugal who shot a total of 201.4 in the event won the gold medal, according to a release.

The silver and bronze medal for the event went to Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan and Chinese Yang Sun with scores of 200.4 and 177.3 respectively.

The event had three quota places up for grabs and Portuguese Costa had already sealed his quota place earlier hence he was not eligible for one here.

Earlier in the day, Gurpreet had edged past the in-form Jitu Rai by a point to qualify for the final.

Gurpreet has been shooting steady for a while now and it was just yesterday in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol category, where he missed out on his quota place by the narrowest of margin after finishing fourth.

However destiny had it that he finally earned India its fifth quota place.

The other Indians to have earned India the earlier four quota places are Jitu Rai, Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang, Apurvi Chandela and India's only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.