New Delhi: Shooter Maheshwari Chauhan on Sunday sealed India's 21st quota place for the Paris Olympics by winning a silver medal in the women's skeet event on the concluding day of the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship Shotgun in Doha.
Maheshwari, competing in her maiden ISSF Final, lost 3-4 to Chile's Francisca Crovetto Chadid in a shoot-off for gold, after both were tied at 54 hits in the 60-shot final. It is India's second Paris quota place in the women's skeet.
"I am thrilled. There has been a lot of hard work over the years to get here. I am a bit bummed about the shoot-off, but overall, it has been very satisfying," said Maheshwari after the final.
The day began with the Indian on top of the qualification pile, but a final round score of 23 meant she would qualify for the top-six final in fourth position. Her tally of 121, however, did give her the new national record.
Given Chadid had already secured a quota place in earlier competitions and China's Jiang Yiting, the sixth qualifier, was ineligible as her nation had already exhausted their quotas in the event, Maheshwari's fight was with three others (Kazakhstan's Assem Orybay, Azerbaijan's Rigina Meftakhetdinova and the top qualifier Sweden's Victoria Larsson).
At the first elimination stage (after 20 shots), the Indian was in second place behind Chadid, having missed two targets. Orynbay the Kazakh, was first to bow out with five misses in the first 20 targets. The quota was confirmed after Rigina bowed out next, having missed five in 30. Victoria of Sweden would claim the other available quota.
That probably calmed the nerves with Maheshwari getting stronger as the final progressed, catching up with the leader after 50 shots. Both had missed five at that stage. Maheshwari then had three chances to win gold, but it was not to be and she missed her double entirely in the third shoot-off round to hand Chadid the gold.
