Deepak Kumar celebrated his birthday in grand style by securing India’s 10th Olympic quota in shooting at the 14th Asian Shooting Championship in Doha, Qatar.
Deepak, who turned 32 today, lived up to the expectations by managing to win a quota with a bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle on the opening day of the competition.
The most experienced of the three Indian shooters participating in the event, Deepak shot the third best qualification score of 626.8 to make it to the final.
Deepak started the final with a poor 8.9, but came back strongly with twenty one straight scores of 10 and above to take the third spot of the podium.
China’s Liu Yukun and Yu Haonan won the gold and silver respectively.
Deepak is the second Indian shooter to earn a quota in the event after Divyansh Singh Panwar, who secured it in April this year at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing.
Last year, Deepak had won a silver at the Asian Games and a bronze at the World Cup in Guadalajara.
Ankush Kiran Jadhav shot 623.7 to finish 14th while Yash Vardhan shot 619.1 to finish 30th in a field of 59 shooters.
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