Kynan seals Rio berth

New Delhi: Kynan Chenai gave himself an advance birthday gift by securing a quota place for the Rio Olympics but London Games silver medallist Vijay Kumar’s hopes of earning a berth went up in smoke at the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition for shooting, here on Thursday. The 26-year-old Kynan registered the best day of his short career when he battled all odds to finish fourth and grab one of the four quotas available in men’s trap event on day two of the event at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Ranges.

Chenai, who celebrates his birthday on Friday, qualified for the strong six-man finals field shooting a score of 120 (47/50 on Wednesday and 73/75 on Thursday). Kynan was delighted with the result. “This is the biggest achievement of my career. Now, winning a medal at the Olympics will depend on my training  as well as my physical and mental conditioning,” he said after the event. In the final rounds, Kynan tied with three others after the first 15 shots with a score of 12 to reach the semifinals stage, thereby assuring the 10th quota for India from shooting.

In the bronze medal shoot-off with Kuwaits Talal Al-Rashidi, competing as an International Shooting Participant (IPS) since his country is under IOC suspension for government interference, Kynan missed two of his 15 shots to his opponents one. Another international shooting participant Abdulrahman Al Faihan won the gold in the trap event, while Chinese Taipei’s Yang Kun-Pi clinched the silver. The other three quotas in the event went to Kuwait, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan.

In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, Vijay began strongly in the qualifiers with a top score of 576, but struggled to keep up the momentum in the final. In the six-man event, where he had to beat Qatari Oleg Engachev and one out of two Japanese shooters to ensure a quota, Vijay became the second shooter to be eliminated finishing fifth as a result. The two quotas in this event were bagged by gold medallist Teruyoshi Akiyama and bronze winner Eita Mori of Japan. Korea’s Yong Hoo Choi took the silver. Korea could not claim quotas in this event as they had already exhausted their share in earlier competitions. However, Manavjit Singh Sandhu could not clear the qualification hurdle in men’s trap event. The former world and Asian champion from will now have to put up a better performance in the selection trials.