PUNE:
Rhythm Sangwan
heaved a sigh of relief after winning bronze in the
women’s 25m pistol
at the Asia Olympic qualification in Jakarta on Thursday.
But the medal was a side dish here...
Rhythm won what she has been eying for the past two years – a ticket to Paris.
After missing an Olympic quota by small margins three times since 2022, Rhythm, one of the most consistent Indian shooters presently, finally secured a berth by finishing third in the final of the event.
With Rhythm’s quota, India surpassed its record count of 15 berths secured for the Tokyo Games.
With 16 quota places and more to come, India will field its biggest
shooting
contingent at the Paris Games this year.
Only China, with 19 quota places, is ahead of India in this race. Rhythm, 20, topped the qualification round by shooting 588 but fell short in the final with a score of 28.
However, a third place was enough for her to get one of the two quotas available.
Since the gold and silver medallists, Jin Yang and Yeji Kim, had already won quotas in earlier events, the first quota place went to Rhythm, while Taipei’s WU Chia Ying got the second. Rhythm had first missed the quota after finishing fifth in the 25m event at the Cairo World Championships in 2022.
Her second miss also came in the World Championships, this time at Changwon last year when she finished eighth. At the ongoing event in Jakarta, Rhythm finished second, behind Esha Singh, and missed the quota place in the 10m air pistol event on Monday.
“Yes, that is a big list of misses, but I have started believing that things happen only when God wants them to happen. I have been working hard and trying to win a quota for a long time, but it had to happen today. I am happy and relieved that it has been done,” Rhythm told TOI after her event.
She admits it was tough to wait for so long.
“It was difficult to wait and miss it by small margins but my coach Vinit Kumar sir has a lot of faith in me. We realised the mistakes that we made in the past and tried to shoot better,” she said.
Rhythm added that support from her family made her stronger after every miss.
English (US) ·