Abhinav Bindra qualifies for Rio Games 2016 through Olympic quota

New Delhi: Beijing Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra on Thursday qualified for the Rio Olympics 2016 through one of the Olympic quotas after he finished sixth in the Men's 10m Air Rifle final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich.

Bindra shot a score of 122.4 in the final. He had shot 627.5 to qualify for the final in his pet event.

Ace Chinese shooter Zhu Qinan won the gold medal with 206 points in the final, while Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia settled for silver with 205.7 points.

Bindra is the fourth Indian shooter to qualify for Rio Games after he clinched one of the three quotas available to qualify for the games.

Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela are the other Indians to have secured an Olympic quota earlier.

Narang did so after finishing third in the 50m Rifle Prone Event of the ISSF World Cup at Fort Benning in USA earlier this month. Chandela had secured the quota place by winning the bronze in the 10m Rifle at World Cup in Korea last month, while pistol ace Jitu Rai had won India's first Olympic quota place at the World Championships in Granada, Spain last year, when he won silver in the 50m Free Pistol event.

Each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events), two each from each discipline.

Notably, Bindra has had a slow start to the season, recording below-par finishes in the first two World Cups after he failed to qualify for the final in Changwon as well as Fort Benning.

(With Agency inputs)