Anish Bhanwala wins bronze, secures India's 12th Paris Olympics quota place

Anish Bhanwala secured India's 12th Paris Olympics quota place in shooting while competing at the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event in the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, South Korea, on Sunday.

The Indian shooter finished third in the qualification round with a score of 588 out of 600 points and earned the quota place because all other contenders had secured their berths in the 2024 Paris Olympics or competed for ranking points only (RPO).

Anish in both stages of the qualification round scored 294 each to sail into the final, where he won the bronze medal. Gunhyeok Lee of South Korea won the gold medal, while Dai Yoshioka took the silver medal.

In the qualification round, China's Wang Xinjie topped the chart, scoring 589, while his compatriot Li Yuehong accumulated a total of 588 points to qualify for the final.

Bhavesh Shekhawat, the other Indian shooter who competed at the Championship, finished sixth in the qualification round with a total of 584 points. Bhavesh, however, was not eligible for an Olympic quota place since he competed at the event for RPO.

This was, meanwhile, India's first quota place in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.

India has so far won three quota places at the Asian Championship in Changwon. Last week, Tilottama Sen (women’s 10m air rifle) and Manu Bhaker (women's 25m pistol) secured two more quota places for India.

Indian shooters who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics:

Men's 10m air rifle - Rudrankksh Patil, Arjun Babuta

Men's 10m air pistol - Sarabjot Singh

Men's 50m rifle 3 positions - Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran

Men's trap - Bhowneesh Mendiratta

Women's 10m air rifle - Mehuli Ghosh, Tilottama Sen

Women's 50m rifle 3 positions - Sift Kaur Samra

Women's trap - Rajeshwari Kumari

Women's 25m pistol - Manu Bhaker

Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol - Anish Bhanwala