ISSF World Championships: Swapnil Kusale bags Paris Olympics quota but narrowly misses out on medal
Indian shooter Swapnil Kusale bagged the third Paris Olympics quota place for India as the 27-year-old finished fourth in the men’s 50m rifle 3p final in the ISSF World Championships in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday afternoon. The first quota was won Bhowneesh Mendiratta in the men’s trap shooting event and the second quota was won Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in the 10m Air rifle event where he won the gold medal.
Kusale, who shot a qualification score of 593 to qualify for the eight-shooter final at the second spot, was in contention for the gold-medal match too but a low 8.2 in his final shot in the eighth series in the final denied him a medal.
With Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine, Tomasz Bartnik of Poland, Maciej Kowalewicz of Poland, Jon-hermann Hegg of Norway, Maximilain Dallinger of Germany and Jonghyun Kim of Korea joining Kusale in the final, it was a fight between six shooters for the four Paris Olympics quotas on offer.
Two of the shooters were from Poland with only one shooter from one country eligible for the quota along with Norwegian Hegg who had already bagged his in the European championships early this year. Kushale’s chances of taking a quota were high.
Earlier this week, youngster Shiva Narwal had finished last in the eight-shooter final in the men’s 10m air pol event but Kusale had no such thoughts of quitting early in the final. The final starts with shooters shooting ten shots in kneeling, prone and standing series each to decide the ranking from third to eighth, after the end of the sixth series, with seventh and eighth placed shooters being eliminated.
Kusale started in a confident manner as his score of 52.2 in the first kneeling series put him at the top spot and 0.4 points ahead of the second-placed Norwegian Jon-Hermann Hegg. The Indian continued his fine form in the second kneeling series as he shot a score of 52.4 in the five-shot series to end the kneeling series at the top spot with a score of 104.6. Kusale shot seven scores of 10.5 or above in his first ten shots in the kneeling series to take an early lead in the final.
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The stunning 2nd Prone series that kept Swapnil Kusale in race for the Olympic quota. pic.twitter.com/Ac1uUN1MVP
— Express Sports (@IExpressSports) October 22, 2022
With him having a 1.1-point lead over Hegg, Kusale started the first series in prone and third series overall with a low 9.8 before shooting scores of 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 and a 10.8 to be at the fourth spot. Polish Tomasz Bartnik led at this point followed Norwegian Jon-Hermann Hegg and Serhiy Klush.
But the Indian shooter shot scores of 10.7, 10.3, 10.4, 10.8 and 10.2 to leap to the third spot with an overall score of 207.9. At that point, only 0.8 points separated the third placed Kusale and fourth placed Dallinger and fifth placed Hegg, with the next two standing series’ determining the seventh and eighth placed shooters.
Kusale’s score of 52.4 in the second prone series was the third highest among the eight shooters and meant that he started the standing series in almost a safe situation. With Bertnik and Kulish leading after the end of prone series and Hegg in the top-five, Kusale needed to maintain his spot or at least the fifth spot after the standing series with these four shooters in the top-five to be assured of a Olympics quota.
The first standing series for Kusale started with a 51.2 for him to climb to the second spot with 259.1 points, behind Kulish’s 259.9. But with Bartnik trailing him just 0.1 point and Kowalewicz climbing to fourth spot, Kusale needed to stay in the mix and avoid the first elimination.
Third @Paris2024 quota in Shooting for India as Swapnil Kusale finishes fourth in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event at the @ISSF_Shooting #worldchampionship in Cairo. Well shot young man @WeAreTeamIndia #IndiaShooting pic.twitter.com/g7gJBRI5ov
— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) October 22, 2022
The Indian shot a low 50.0 in the second standing series but with Kowalewicz dropping to fifth and Hegg to sixth, Kusale was placed third trailing Bartnik 0.4 points and Kulish leading Bartnik 2.3 points.
At this point, German Maximillian Dallinger and Korean Jonghyun Kim got eliminated and with Hegg already having the Olympics quota and one of the Polish shooters out of the top six not eligible for the spot, Kusale sealed the Paris quota along with Kulish, China’s Yukun Liu and one of the two Polish shooters.
A standing series of 51.0 saw Kushale climbing to the second spot trailing Kulish 2.5 points. He was leading third placed Bartnik 0.4 and fourth placed Hegg 2.6 points. But a low standing series of 47.5, which included a score of 8.2 off his last shot, saw him finish fourth in the final. The Indian was in contention for the bronze medal or even a place in the gold medal match but two shots in the nine circle and the last shot of 8.2 denied him the chance to win at the Worlds. Kulish won the gold with a 16-6 win over Bartnik to win the gold.
