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Avneet books Olympics berth, Farthate strikes gold
Farthate shot 596/600 points to become the second Indian, after Jaspal Rana, to win a World Championship gold medal in the junior event.
India's fine run at the World Shooting Championships continued on Tuesday as Navnath Farthate won the boys' 10-metre junior air rifle gold, a day after Abhinav Bindra and Avneet Kaur Sidhu booked berths for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Farthate shot 596/600 points to become the second Indian, after Jaspal Rana, to win a World Championship gold medal in the junior event, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said.
Rana had won the gold in the standard pistol event in the 1994 edition of the competition.
So far India has won two gold medals - Bindra won the first one in the men's 10m air rifle on Monday - and two bronze medals, in addition to the two quota places, in the ongoing competition. Bindra and Avneet have won the two quota places.
Overall, Avneet became the sixth Indian shooter to qualify for the 2008 Olympics when she finished eighth in the 10-metre air rifle event on Monday.
Her qualification came close on the heels of a similar feat that Bindra achieved in the men's 10m air rifle a few hours before.
Avneet was fourth at the end of the qualifying round with a total of 397 points, after shooting 97, 100, 100 and 100.
And in the final she shot 10.2, 10.5, 10.0, 8.1, 9.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.2, 10.1 and 10.6 for a total of 101.1 and a grand total of 498.1/500 to finish eighth.
India's Tejaswini Sawant failed to qualify for the final and finished at a distant 23rd with 394/400 and Deepali Deshpande managed a poor 70th place (390/400) in the same event.
Bindra, double trap specialist Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore - who won the historic silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games - Anjali Bhagwat, Narang and Manavjit Singh Sandhu had earlier booked their Olympic berths.
A total of 44 Indians, including 15 juniors, are vying for several Olympics berths on offer at the championship.
There could be more qualifiers from India. Among the hopefuls is the Commonwealth Games hero Samresh Jung, who won seven medals, including five gold and one silver, in Melbourne in March.
