Asian Games Gold medalist Palak Gulia win India's 20th Paris Olympics Quota in shooting

Palak Gulia, India's start shooter and Asian Games 2023 gold medalist earned India's 20th Paris Olympics quota in shooting by finishing third position in the final of 10m air pistol at ISSF Final Olympic Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday.

This was India's 20th quota in shooting and eighth quota in pistol shooting. With this quota, India now have won 16 of the 16 available quotas in rifle and pistol shooting along with four in the shotgun.

After a shaky start, Palak Guila finished with 217.6 points after bowing out in his 22nd shot, in a 24-shot final. Armenia's Elmira Karapetyan won gold, while Kamonlak Saencha from Thailand won silver. 

Elmira Karapetyan already had earned a quota for her country and that's why all the other seven finalists had the chance to grab the available two quotas. 

After the rocky start, Indian shooters Palak and Sainyam could not keep up with the competition given by Veronika Major of Hungary and Kamonlak Sanecha. Though Palak and Sainyam struggled to get over the fifth position, Veronika's elimination from the competition helped them a lot. Meantime, the Indians started getting better too. Ahead of the 19th shot, Palak took a 0.6 lead over Veronika and fixed her place at number three. Sainyam meantime finished fifth.

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Indian Athletes who have qualified for Paris Olympics 2024