Shiva Narwal has qualified for the men’s 10m air pistol final with a score of 583 and placed sixth in qualification in the ISSF World Championships in Cairo.
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With China having three shooters and Ukraine having two shooters in the eight-shooter final and with one country being eligible for one quota per event, only two out of those five shooters are eligible for the Paris Olympics quota. It will be a fight between five shooters for the four Olympic quotas on offer in the final.
Narwal needs to finish seventh or above in the final to claim the quota for Paris Olympics if any of the Pakistan or Korean shooter finishes on eighth spot. With only five countries eligible for four quotas, Narwal can seal the quota early in the final if the Korean and Pakistan shooter shoot lower than him in initial series in the final and get eliminated
Naveen narrowly missed the final finishing ninth with a score of 582 and being tied with two other shooters but missed out on lesser number of inner tens.
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China’s Yifan Zhang topped the 10m air pistol qualification with a score of 589 followed by team-mate Bowen Zhang, who shot a score of 587. Pakistan’s Gulfam Joseph finished third in qualification with a score of 586.
Among Shiva Narwal’s competitors in the final, the qualification topper 22-year old Yifan has never reached a senior world championship/cup final. Another Chinese in the final, 26-year-old Zhang Bowen had finished sixth in Tokyo Olympics. The third Chinese 24-year-old Liu Jinyao is a 2018 world junior finalist.
Pakistan’s Gulfam Joseph, who finished ninth in Tokyo Olympics qualification, will be competing in his first senior World Cup/world championship final. Ukrainian 24-year-old Pavlo Korostylov is one of the most experienced shooters in the final having finished fourth in Tokyo Olympics apart from being a 2014 Youth Olympics champion. He is a three-time World Cup/World Cup final medallist with a silver in 2017 World Cup final under his belt apart from a gold in World Cup in 2017 and a bronze medal in World Cup in 2014.
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The other Ukrainian Viktor Bankin has never won a medal at the world level and had two final appearances in World Cups with a fourth place finish in 2017 World Cup being his best. 23-year-old Korean Lee Wonho too has not reached in a final at the world level.
India’s third shooter, young Vijayveer Sidhu was placed eighth with a score of 579 after the end of first qualification relay in the 10m Air Pistol event in ISSF World Championships. With top eight shooters qualifying for the final, if any one of the remaining shooters scored more than 579 in second qualification relay, it was to be end of Sidhu’s campaign.
He would ultimately finish 19th.
