Para Shooting World Cup: Mona secures Paralympics quota with a gold medal

Indian para-shooter, Mona Aggarwal confirmed a Paris Paralympics quota place for India after clinching the gold medal in R2-Women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 category at the Para Shooting World Cup in New Delhi on Saturday.

Mona is now the second Indian shooter to confirm a Paralympic quota place in this category after Avani Lekhara, who won the spot in the 2022 Châteauroux World Cup in France.

Mona shot a commendable score of 250.7 in the final to outclass top seed Zhang Cuiping (248.8) of China. Zhang was continuously reducing the gap between the two players but Mona's two back-to-back shots of 10.8 in the end confirmed her medal.

She booked a place in the final after finishing seventh (618) in the qualification round while Zhang finished on top with 627.7.

The second Indian in the fray was Paralympic champion Avani Lekhara who reached the final finishing in fourth position ( 244.7) in the qualification round. In the final, she continued her good form and added a bronze medal in front of the home crowd.

On the other hand, Paralympian Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar closely missed out on the place in the final and eventually the Paralympic quota place in R1 - Men's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 category. He took the ninth place in the qualification round with 615.

In the P3 - Mixed 25m Air Rifle Standing SH1 category, 19-year-old Vikas Bhatiwal missed out on a medal as he finished fourth in the final. Earlier, he took the sixth in the qualification round with a score of 566.