Olympic Selection Trials: Paris-bound Manu Bhaker and Vijayveer Sidhu secure wins in T4

Paris-bound shooters Manu Bhaker and Vijayveer Sidhu secured victories in the Olympic Selection Trials T4 in the women's 25m pistol final and men's 25m rapid-fire pistol finals, respectively, at the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy in Bhopal on May 14, Tuesday.

Olympic quota winner Manu Bhaker ended the final trial as the leader of the tally with an impressive average score of 586.47. She went on to shoot a world record-equalling 42 shots in the T4 final.

Moving forward in the women’s 25m pistol final, Simranpreet Singh and Abhidnya Patil secured the silver and bronze medals with 35 and 30 shots respectively. However, they couldn’t bag the Paris Olympics 2024 spot, averaging 581.87 and 578.2 respectively from the Olympic Selection Trials.

Esha Singh, the other shooter to confirm the Paris spot, settled for the fourth spot in the T4 final with 27 shots. Nevertheless, she ended the trials with a qualification average of 584.07, behind Manu Bhaker.

Interestingly, the other quota winner Rhythm Sangwan couldn’t create an impact, failing to bag the spot for the mega event in Paris. She managed an average total of 582.2 after the end of T4 qualification. In the T4 final, she managed 20 shots before the elimination stage.

Vijayveer Sidhu topped the Olympic Selection Trials T4 final

On the other hand, in the 25m rapid-fire pistol, Vijayveer Sidhu secured the top spot with an impressive 34 shots in the T4 final. He had an average score of 581.40 to confirm his Paris Olympics 2024 spot.

Anish Bhanwala, the other Paris spot holder, bagged the silver medal while Adarsh Singh settled for a bronze medal with 30 and 25 shots respectively. Interestingly, Anish had a better average rating of 581.13 to top the qualification after T4.

Bhavesh Shekhawat (580.53), Ankur Goel (578.40), and Adarsh Singh (575.80) couldn’t manage to bag the qualification for the quadrennial event in Paris.

With the conclusion of the 25m events, all eyes are now set on the T3 trials for 50m events scheduled for Wednesday, where the top shooters will vie for their spots in the Indian contingent.

With all four trials for 25m events concluding, the OST will move to T3 trials for 50m events, starting from May 15, Wednesday. The top shooters will earn the Paris Olympics 2024 spots in the Indian team.

After the end of Olympic Selection Trials T2, Ashi Chouksey and Swapnil Kusale are leading comfortably in the women’s rifle 3 position and men’s rifle 50m rifle 3 positions events.