Bindra earns India another quota place for Rio Olympics

Abhinav Bindra today became the fourth Indian shooter to win a quota place for the Rio Olympics after he finished sixth in the Men's 10m Air Rifle final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich.

Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, shot a score of 122.4 in the final. He had shot 627.5 to qualify for the final in his pet event.

Ace Chinese shooter Zhu Qinan won the gold medal with 206 points in the final, while Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia settled for silver with 205.7 points.

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

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 Jitu Rai had won India's first Olympic quota place at the World Championships in Granada, Spain last year, when he won 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.

If Bindra could make it to Rio, it will be his fifth consecutive Olympic Games.

The President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Raninder Singh was elated at Bindra securing another quota place for India.

"I never had any doubts about Abhinav securing a quota place for us sooner or later. He is not an Olympic champion for nothing. He is very clear about his goals and his preparations leading up to big events, is something every professional sportsman in this country should emulate. We have our fingers crossed for him for the Olympics," said Raninder.