Rathore books Olympic berth

Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore clinched the fourth Olympic quota place for the country by winning the double trap gold in dramatic fashion at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday.

The army marksman topped the field with a score of 182 after making it to the finals through sudden death following a tied finish with Qiang Pan of China at the end of qualifying rounds.

Rathore shot a score of 137 (47+46+44) in the preliminaries but bounced back with an excellent 45 in the final in which he hit the bird in the last 10 rounds.

"I knew that I wanted to do my best. In the extreme weather conditions, I kept my nerves to get the quota," Rathore told PTI from Cairo.

"People are very thrilled here because it is quite unprecendented to jump from sixth place to number one in the finals that too after I was in final after sudden death.

"I am very happy but my drill of training and competitions will continue," he said.

Gagan Narang and Anjali Bhagwat (rifle) and Manavjit Singh Sandhu (trap) are the other three Indians to have won a quota place for the Beijing Games in 2008.