Shreyasi Singh.
| Photo Credit: File photo: AFP
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) got the green signal from the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) to swap one of the women’s pistol Olympic quota places for women’s trap, and field Shreyasi Singh for the Paris Games.
With Manu Bhaker finishing on top in both women’s air pistol and sports pistol, emerging as the only shooter to compete in two events, one of the air pistol quota places fell vacant.
While Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan gained entry for Olympics in sports pistol and air pistol events, swapping their position from the Olympic quota that they had won, the Olympic quota won by Asian Games gold medallist Palak Gulia in air pistol was swapped for women’s trap.
The NRAI chose to seek a women’s trap quota place, as all other women’s events had already been filled with maximum possible two Olympic quota places. As per the rules, a country can swap one of the quota places with another event of the same gender, subject to availability of slots.
The 32-year-old Shreyasi Singh, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Bihar, will be the second women’s trap shooter behind Rajeshwari Kumari who had won the quota place. Shreyasi had done well to be ranked 32nd, the second best in the Olympic ranking list behind Rajeshwari, ranked 30.
Shreyasi had finished fifth in the Asian Championship in January, when the Olympic quota places were bagged by the gold and silver medallists from Taiwan and China.
That apart, the NRAI had also conducted the selection trials in shotgun to rank the shooters for Olympic entry.
With 21 shooters competing in 22 individual events, apart from five mixed events in rifle, pistol and skeet, Indian shooters have given themselves 27 chances for Olympic medals.
Incidentally, China also has 21 quota places, like India, followed by the USA (17), Korea (16), France (16), Italy (15), Germany (13), Egypt (11) and Australia (10) among the leading countries, out of the 81 countries that have managed to gain entry for the Paris Games.
