Apurvi Chandela missed a medal by the narrowest possible margin of 0.1 point in the women’s 10m air rifle at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing.
The 26-year-old Apurvi, who won gold at the Delhi World Cup earlier this year, topped the qualification with a score of 630.4 and shot 207.8 in the final to finish 4th.
Anjum Moudgil shot 629.4 to qualify for the final on the 4th place and finished 6th. Promising shooter Elavenil Valarivan shot 626.9 to finish 17th.
Yulia Karimova of Russia won the gold medal. The silver was won by Kwon Eunji of Korea while another Korean Keum Jihyeon took the bronze.
In fact, with six of the eight finalists having already won the Olympic quota or being ineligible to win one as their countries had already won the maximum two Olympic quota places in the event, Najmeh Khedmati of Iran and Anna Nielsen of Denmark were assured of the Olympic quota places even before the start of the final. The two finished 5th and 7th subsequently.
Apurvi and Anjum had won the quota at the World Championship last year.
Shooting in the MQS section, teenage sensation Mehuli Ghosh shot the best among the Indians with a very impressive score of 632.2 to set a new national record.
The Results:
Women 10m Air Rifle: 1. Yulia Karimova (Russia) 251.1 (630.4); 2. Kwon Eunji (Korea) 250.2 (629.0); 3. Keum Jihyeon (Korea) 228.0 (628.7); 4. Apurvi Chandela (India) 207.8 (630.9); 6. Anjum Moudgil (India) 164.6 (629.4); 17. Elavenil Valarivan (India) 626.9. MQS: Mehuli Ghosh (India) 632.2.