Yashaswini’s golden strike to Tokyo

Pune: The 2017 Junior World Champion Yashaswini Singh Deswal on Saturday stunned former Olympic and World Champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine at the ISSF Rifle-Pistol World Cup in Rio De Janeiro to win the Women’s 10m Air Pistol gold and the ninth Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota for India.

The 22-year old, who had finished sixth in Nanjing Youth Olympics in 2014, first topped qualification with a superb 582 leading from start to finish in the 60-shot round. But what was to follow can only be described as the stuff of dreams.

She entered the final having to be one of six finalists who were eligible to win quotas, among them Kostevych.

Playing her fifth senior world cup and only her second final, the former junior world champion, led from the first shot-save the 15th when she fell just 0.1 behind to regain the lead on the 16th; of the 24-shot final to finish with 236.7 to the Ukranian champion’s 234.8 for a memorable victory. Jasmina Milovanovic won bronze with 215.7.

She was human. Stuttering when she did not want to, like during the 21st shot when she scored a 9.7 bringing about a grimace, looking aware of the champion closing in who had roared with a 10.9. But she was in their for a fight, hitting back immediately with a 10.5, like she had been throughout the final.

The Chandigarh girl’s two final shots where in the 9s, but importantly both were higher than those of the Ukranian champion.

Indian shooters do well

Among India’s other competitors Annu Raj Singh shot 572 for a 21st place finish while Shweta Singh finished 31st shooting a score of 568.

Earlier in the day, Kajal Saini delivered a hugely improved performance in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3-Position coming in 22nd with a qualifying round score of 1167. Tejaswini Sawant, the former world champion in 50m Prone event, finished 47th with a score of 1156.

In 3P there are a total of 120 shots in qualifying, divided equally among the Kneeling, Prone and Standing positions. The top eight make the final.

In the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP), Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala shot 291 out of 300 in the first Precision round to be in 13th and 14th spots respectively. 

Indians continued to do well in the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS). Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh finished 1-2 in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol shooting scores of 580 and 577, which would have seen them both through to the finals in case they were competing for medals.

Rio World Cup Factbox:

It was the third gold for India in the World Cup, following the ones won by Elavenil Valarivan and Abhishek Verma.

Also it was the second Olympic quota for India after the one won with the silver medal by Sanjeev Rajput in men’s rifle 3-position event.

India’s Olympic entry count for Tokyo went up to nine. Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker had won the quota earlier.

The second Olympic quota in women’s air pistol meant that India can now field two teams in the mixed pairs competition in Tokyo.

Results:

10m Air pistol: 1. Yashaswini Singh Deswal (Ind) 236.7 (582); 2. Olena Kostevych (Ukr) 234.8 (576); 3. Jasmina Milovanovic (Srb) 216.7 (576); 21. Annu Raj Singh (Ind) 572; 31. Shweta Singh (Ind) 568. MQS: Manu Bhaker 580, Esha Singh 577.

50m Rifle 3-position: 1. Seonaid Mcintosh (Gbr) 461.2 (1175); 2. Kim Jehee (Kor) 458.4 (1175); 3. Pei Ruijiao (Chn) 448.1 (1178); 22. Kajal Saini 1167; 47. Tejaswini Sawant 1156. MQS: Anjum Moudgil 1169, Sunidhi Chauhan 1157.