India’s loss proved to be Pakistan’s gain as Ghulam Mustafa Bashir joined teammate Mohamed Khalil Akhtar on the flight to Tokyo by clinching a quota spot in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol competition in Doha.
The duo were denied visas by India to participate in the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi in the aftermath of an attack on security forces in Indian administered Kashmir’s Pulwama district in February. The Delhi event was also an Olympic qualifier.
While Khalil went on to earn his spot by finishing 6th at the Rio de Janeiro World Cup in August-September, Bashir produced some impressive shooting in Doha yesterday, where he finished fifth to qualify.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had slammed India for not issuing visas, saying the decision had violated the Olympic Charter. As a result, the ISSF had decided to scrap the two Olympic quotas in the event in which the Pakistanis were to participate – the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.
Yesterday, as Bashir shot his way to Tokyo, the whole visa episode returned to haunt India. If the Indian government had issued visas to the Pakistani duo, the quotas would not have been scrapped and Anish Bhanwala, who won the gold in Delhi, would have bagged an automatic Olympic spot.
Bhanwala had another chance in Doha but he could only finish 11th in qualification yesterday with a score of 574. A poor final series put paid to his hopes of bagging one of the four available Tokyo 2020 quotas in the event.
India’s shooters, however won eight medals but missed out on three possible Olympic spots.
India’s tally now stands at four gold, three silver and six bronze medals.
Kynan Chenai was second in the men’s Trap qualification with a solid 122, but in the six-man final, he finished sixth with 13 successful hits out of his first 25-shots. Kuwait, Chinese Taipei and Qatar bagged the three quota places.
The Indian men’s Trap team of Kynan, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj won the silver medal with a total score of 357, six short of Kuwait who won the gold.
India picked up two gold, two silver and two bronze medals additionally in the junior men’s and women’s 50m Rifle Prone competitions.The junior men’s team comprising Niraj Kumar, Abid Ali Khan and Harshrajsinhji Gohil logged a total of 1,845 to win the gold ahead of China and Korea. Niraj, with his effort of 616.3, also won an individual silver and Abid an individual bronze with a score of 614.4. The junior women’s prone team comprising Nishchal, Bhakti Khamkar and Kinnori Konar also won the team gold with a combined score of 1,836.3. Here too, China and Korea won silver and bronze respectively.
Nishchal and Bhakti too won an individual silver and bronze by notching up scores of 615.3 and 614.2 respectively.
Yuting Ma and Hao Yu of China won the individual golds in both the junior prone competitions.
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