Jung bags pistol Olympic quota

Samresh Jung bagged an Olympics quota place at the fourth and last ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, on Wednesday.

The Indian marksman fired a total of 682.1 to finish fourth in a nerve-wrecking men's 10 metre air pistol final after a tie shoot, becoming the first Indian to bag an Olympic quota in men's pistol shooting competition.

The Melbourne Commonwealth Games champion fired 584 in qualification and 98.1 in the final round.

"This is first-ever direct entry in Olympics for an Indian pistol shooter," National Rifle Association of India general secretary Rajiv Bhatia said.

"Earlier, Jaspal Rana had got a wildcard entry in the 1996 Atlanta Games and among women Abha Dhillon had also been given wildcard before," he said.

Jung became overall eighth Indian after Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Anjali Bhagwat, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Manavjeet Singh and Sanjeev Rajput to qualify for the 2008 Games to be staged in Beijing, China.

Jung had come closer to winning the Olympic berth in the previous ISSF World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, where also he had shot 584 to finish eighth. He also had come closer to clinching the berth on various occasions since his dazzling performance in Melbourne CWG where he won five gold medals early last year.

The Asian Championships are the last chance for shooters to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games.

However, Tejaswini Sawant was not lucky enough to hit the bull's eye as she missed the quota in the women's rifle three position event by just one point.

Tejaswini shot a total of 580 (prone 192, standing 192 and kneeling 193) to finish ninth among 97 shooters.