August 18: Mumbai’s Anjali Vedpathak has made it to the Indian shooting squad for the Sydney Olympics after getting a hardship quota slot.
Anjali is the second Indian to get this privilege after teenager Abhinav Bindra of Chandigarh. Both of them will take part in the air rifle event.
With this, the Indian shooting team for the Olympics will have three members, Anwar Sultan having qualified in the trap event earlier.
National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary Baljit Singh Sethi said here on Friday that the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) decided to give Anjali a hardship quota because of her consistent good showing in the five World Cup competitions held in 1999-2000.
He said 29-year-old Anjali has scored 395 and 396 out of 400 in all these competitions. She also made it to the finals of four World Cup events.
Anjali narrowly missed direct qualification at the Asian Championship held in Lankawi (Malaysia). In the championship she lost out by 0.8 points. Anwar Sultan qualified for the Olympics in this championship.
Sethi that ISSF has also selected four Indian shooters to take part in the World Cup finals at Nicosia (shotgun events) and Munich (rifle, pistol) in October and November.
The selected shooters are: Anjali Vedpathak (air rifle), Abhinav Bindra (air rifle), Manavjit Singh (trap) and RVS Rathore (double trap).