Debutant Jaypal Malviya gets LA28 quota in 10m air pistol

PUNE: On a day when all eyes were on Manu Bhaker to win a medal and a quota place, Jaypal Malviya arrived unannounced to do the honors at the ISSF World Championships in Doha on Thursday.Madhya Pradesh’s Malviya, competing in his first international event in the medal category, won silver in the men’s 10m air pistol and also secured India’s first berth at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.Malviya (31) scored 242.2 in the final while China’s Hu Kai shot 243.9 to win the gold. Czech Jindřich Dubový took the bronze and the third quota place in the offer with a score of 220.9.Malviya entered the final after shooting 585 in the qualifying round.Manu Bhaker earlier missed out on a medal and a quota place after finishing fifth in the women’s 10m air pistol. Manu scored 179.9 in the final and fourth place would at least secure a quota as there were two Chinese in the top four and only one athlete from one country gets a quota from one match.Another Indian, Suruchi Singh, met a similar fate as she finished behind Manu with a score of 158.3. Manu shot 583 while Suruchi 580 to enter the final.In the Malviya men’s final. the farmer’s son from MP’s Chhindwara started modestly with a low 10 and some 9 in between till his first 12 shots. Although he maintained his top-5 finish, he shifted gears after 12 shots for 10.6, 10.2, 10.7 and 10.8 to climb to second place in the final on 8 shooters.In the last four rounds where bronze and gold were decided, Malviya shot two 9.7s and 10.7 to stay in the hunt, but Kai’s 10.6, 10.7 and 10.5 in the last three shots gave the Indian no chance of gold.The final had three Chinese shooters, including Paris Games champion Yu Xie and Hu Kai, who won all the gold medals at the four World Cups last year. The finalists also had Paris Games bronze medalist Paolo Monna of Italy, but he crashed out of the final in fifth position, while Xie crashed out in seventh.“He played only in his first international match and that too in the World Cup. He shot really well despite being shaky in the beginning. I feel he controlled his mind well and executed his plan effectively,” Indian coach and former shooter Samaresh Jung told TOI.