Chandigarh's shooter Palak Gulia performed brilliantly, won 20th Olympic quota in shooting

Chandigarh shooter Palak Gulia secured India's 20th Paris 2024 Olympic quota by winning a bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday. 18 year old Palak scored 217.6. Armenia's Elmira Karapetyan won the gold medal with a score of 240.7 while Thailand's Kamonlak Sancha won the silver medal with a score of 240.5. Indian shooter Sanyam finished fifth with a score of 176.7.

Palak did not have a good start in the finals. At the beginning of the competition for Olympic quota, Kamonlak Sancha of Thailand and Major Veronica of Hungary had taken a good lead. However, despite the pressure, Palak bounced back and performed well during the elimination stage. Veronica had to face defeat in the fifth round and had to be content with fourth place.

While first-place finisher Elmira Karapetyan had already secured the Olympic quota, silver medalist Sencha and bronze medalist Palak got the Olympic quota. Palak Gulia had won the gold medal in 10 meter air pistol in the Asian Games last year. While India's Isha Singh won the silver medal.

18 year old Palak is a first year BA student at DAV College Sector-10. Palak is the fourth shooter from DAV College-10 to get quota for Paris Olympics. Earlier, Vijayveer Singh Sidhu of DAV College had achieved Olympic quota in 25m, Sarbjot Singh in 10m and Manu Bhakar in 25m sports pistol.