CHENNAI: Niraj Kumar displayed his mettle to help India capture their second quota for LA28 Olympics in shooting with a bronze medal effort in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions in the ongoing ISSF World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
In a final that saw scores fluctuate up and down, Niraj was largely on the mark and he eventually returned with a tally of 346.5.
Dmitrii Pimenov, representing Individual Neutral Athletes, was the clear standout and deservedly walked away with the top prize. Barring his final shot and a few other shots, the talented 21-year-old from Russia was untouchable.
Patrik Jany of Slovakia, who had already earned a quota heading into the final, edged Niraj to capture the silver medal. World No 1 Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway just missed out on a podium but his fourth-place effort was enough for him to clinch the third and final quota on offer in the competition.
For Niraj, this is a sort of a big breakthrough. The 26-year-old, who hails from Punjab, has been part of the Indian setup for the last few years or so but had never quite been a standout, given the rich pool of talent in the country. But in the last few outings, he had been knocking on the door -- he had shown signs of promise with a fifth-place effort in the Cairo edition last year -- and this latest medal is a timely lift for him. He was visibly thrilled with his effort. "I'm very happy. This medal was expected of me for a long time. I had missed out in so many finals and I finally won a bronze medal and I'm very happy with that," Niraj told ISSF YouTube channel.
"My family will be very happy after watching this. I was hungry to win an individual medal as I was winning many team medals for the last three, four years. This is my first individual medal."
Niraj, in the process, also took away the spotlight from the more-acclaimed Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, who after a fairly promising start, just could keep up in the business end. The two-time Olympian, a former junior world champion, could only finish as high as fifth.
Niraj, Aishwary and Akhil Sheoran had earlier captured the team bronze after garnering a combined total of 1751. Czechia and Norway won the gold and silver, respectively.
Following Niraj's exploits, India now have two Olympic quotas so far. Jaypal Malviya had helped the country win the first quota in the men's 10m air pistol event.
