Sanjeev Rajput Bags India’s 12 Shooting Quota For Rio Olympics

This will be the 35-year-old’s third Olympics after he competed in the 2008 and the 2012 edition.

Sanjeev Rajput after winning the Olympic berth for India. (Photo: Twitter)

Sanjeev Rajput has become the 12th Indian shooter to bag a quota for the Rio Olympics. His berth is in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions category.

here were three quota places on offer today at the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament in New Delhi. Though Sanjeev finished fourth in the finals, he won the quota as the two shooters from Kazakhstan and Japan who finished second and third respectively, had already won a quota last year.

Sanjeev Rajput made a strong start in the qualifying round and was leading the pack after the end of kneeling and prone rounds. He made a shaky start in the standing series, but finished strongly to end with a score of 1163 to qualify for the finals in the fourth place. In the finals, where all eight qualified shooters start from zero, four shooters including Sanjeev were vying for the three quota places. Though Sanjeev missed out on a podium finish he ensured that the quota place was never out of his reach.