Veteran Skeet shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan celebrated the biggest day of his 12 year-long shooting career, when he clinched a Rio Olympic Games quota place for India at the ISSF Shotgun World Championship, being held at lonato, Italy. The 40-year-old Mairaj, who started the second day of Men's Skeet competitions in 9th position with a score of 74 after the first three rounds of Qualification, entered the Skeet finals in sixth position with a total score of 122 out of a maximum possible 125, after five rounds of qualification.
Given that all the first five shooters in qualification had already booked their Rio berths, Mairaj secured one of the two available quota places. The other quota went to Germany's Ralf Buchheim who ended his qualification round in eighth position with an identical score of 122. This is India's first Rio quota place in the Shotgun disciplines.
Delighted at the turn of events, Raninder Singh, president, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), said,"This performance and quota place gives me the most satisfaction as being a Shotgun shooter myself, it is very close to my heart.
Mairaj wins 8th Oly Quota
rio de janerio: Deepika Kumari and Mangal Singh Champia have qualified for the individual recurve pre-quarterfinals at the International Archery Challenge for the Rio Olympic Test Event here. The former world number one Deepika, who had a poor 14th finish in the qualifying round, thrashed Amy Oliver of Britain and Alicia Marin of Spain by identical scores of 6-0 to advance into the last 16 at the Sambodromo range. Deepika will clash against world number three and third seed Choi Misun of Korea in the last-16 encounter. Champia, who has earned India an Olympic quota berth, also made the last 16 with hard-fought wins over local challenger Bernardo Oliveira 6-4, and Michele Frangilli of Italy 6-5. Champia will face top seed and Asian Games gold medalist Woojin in the battle for a quarterfinal berth.