Gagan Narang misses out on Olympic qualification by 0.6 points

Gagan Narang

Granada (Spain), Sep 11 (IANS) London Olympics Bronze Medallist Gagan Narang narrowly missed out on one of the five Olympic qualification spots as he finished sixth in the 50M rifle prone event at the 51st ISSF World Championships here Thursday.

Gagan finished seventh in qualification with a score of 625.5, and could improve his position by only one spot in the finals, eventually missing the quota place by a wafer thin margin of 0.6 points. He was one of the eight finalists in the event which saw Russian Sergei Kamenskiy break the world record in the qualification round with a score of 632.3. Warren Potent of Australia won the gold, Germany's Daniel Brodmeier silver and Belarus' Yury Shcherbatsevich bronze.Gagan's compatriot Hariom Singh finished 45th.

"I feel quite itchy without competing in my pet Air Rifle event but I surprised myself too in Prone. I was recovering from flu and a throat infection, but I shot well in qualifying and it was a very good chance for me to win a medal and the quota place for the 2016 Olympics. But I am inexperienced in this event and that hurt me in the final. But there are some positives. This was my first World Championship final in the prone. So some positives, but not finishing the job definitely hurts," he said.

In the 10m air pistol event, Prakash Nanjappa and Jitu Rai finished ninth and tenth respectively, narrowly missing qualifying for the final rounds. There were six Olympic quota places up for grabs in this event. Om Prakash finished 56th in the same event. Jitu did however bag India's lone Olympics qualification spot thus far, by winning the silver at the 50m pistol event.