India's 17-year-old teenager Divyansh Singh Panwar, on Friday, secured the country's fourth Olympic quota place in shooting by winning a silver in the ISSF World Cup in Beijing.
Competing in only his second senior competition, Divyansh shot a total of 249.0 in the 10 metres air rifle event to finish a creditable second in the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters.
In fact, he missed out on the gold medal by just 0.4 points, which eventually went to China's Zicheng Hui, who shot 249.4. Grigorii Shamakov of Russia won the bronze with a score of 227.5.
This is India's fourth 2020 Tokyo Olympic quota after Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (10m air rifle women) and Saurabh Choudhary (10m Air Pistol men) secured berths in the earlier World Cups and last year's World Championship.
Divyansh had qualified in third position for the final with a total score of 629.2.
Among the other Indians in the fray, Ravi Kumar finished 44th with a score of 624.1 while Deepak Kumar was placed 57th with 622.6.
"Feeling really proud to have won quota for my country. I have gained in experience from this final. It was very tough with proven shooters, Olympians in fray," Divyansh said after winning the medal and quota.
On Thursday, Divyansh partnered with Anjum Moudgil to beat the formidable Chinese pair of Liu Ruxuan and Yang Haoran 17-15 in 10m air rifle mixed team event and win the gold.
This was India's third medal at the World Cup in China and they sit atop the medal tally.
The duo of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary had on Thursday won gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
Pardeep Singh wins Asian weightlifting bronze
Pardeep Singh won a bronze medal in clean and jerk in the 102kg category competition at the Asian Weightlifting Championships, in Ningbo, on Friday.
The Indian strongman lifted 201kg in clean and jerk to win a bronze but his 150kg effort in snatch was the least among seven competitors in Group A. He had a total lift of 351kg which placed him at sixth position.
Former World champion Mirabai Chanu (49kg) also won bronze in clean and jerk with a personal best effort of 113kg though she finished fourth in total lift(199kg).
Jhili Dalabehera, a junior World Championship bronze medallist, clinched a silver medal in the women's 45kg, which, however, is not an Olympic weight category.
Medals area awarded separately for snatch, clean and jerk, and total lift in continental and World Championships. But, just one medal -- for total lift -- is awarded in the Olympics.
Semenya gets Van Niekerk backing as she targets longer distance
Olympic 400 metres champion Wayde van Niekerk has backed South African compatriot Caster Semenya in her battle with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which now appears to have taken a new twist.
Semenya, a double 800 metres Olympic gold medalist, is waiting for the outcome of her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to halt the introduction of new regulations by governing body IAAF that would require her to take medicine to limit her natural levels of testosterone.
The IAAF wants female athletes with differences of sexual development who run in events from 400 metres to a mile, to reduce their blood testosterone level to below five (5) nmol/L for a period of six months before they can compete, saying they have an unfair advantage.
"She's fighting for something beyond just track and field, she's fighting for woman in sports, in society and I respect her for that," Van Niekerk told reporters.
"I will support her and with the hard work and talent that she's been putting into the sport. With what she believes in and what she's dreaming for, I've got a lot of respect for her.
"I really hope and pray that everything just goes from strength to strength for her."
