Maheshwari Chauhan kept Indian hopes high at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship for shotgun in Doha as she was placed at sixth position in the 71-strong women's skeet field after two rounds of qualification on Friday.
She shot a perfect 25 in the second for a tally of 48 on the day, which tied her with nine others and put her one behind a group of four leaders which included Rio Olympics champion Diana Bacosi of Italy.
Two more rounds come up on Saturday, before the finals on Sunday, which follow the fifth and final qualifying round. The top six go through to the final.
Maheshwari's teammates Areeba Khan and Ganemat Sekhon shot scores of 45 and 44 to be in 29th and 43rd spots respectively.
The men had a tougher day as Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Sheeraz Sheikh and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa shot identical scores of 46 over two rounds. Mairaj was best placed in 69th position post classification, while Sheeraz and Angad were currently occupying the 78th and 88th spots.
All six skeet shooters are chasing one possible Paris Olympic quota place that they can win in their respective events.
Sift races ahead on road to Paris
Sift Kaur Samra stole a march over her four Olympic Selection Trial (OST) rivals in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions (3P), winning back-to-back competitions at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Friday.
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar also entered the OST winner's circle, claiming the men's 3P T2 final in a classic 0.22 scrap to the finish line.
Sift, the reigning Asian Games champion, world record holder and the undisputed India number one in women's 3P for some time now, shot 465.1 in the OST T2 final, to leave Ashi Choksey 2.4 behind in second.
Anjum Moudgil was third, after coming second-best in a shoot-off with Ashi. Shriyanka Sadangi and Nishchal came in fourth and fifth.
Sift had also earlier won the women's 3P OST T1 at the same venue on Wednesday. As things stand, one more good performance in Bhopal, where the OST 3 and 4 are scheduled next month, should see Sift through.
The men's 3P OST T2 final saw yet another India number one and Paris quota holder Aishwary Tomar emerge victorious in a nail-biting climax. Heading into the final shot, Aishwary was 0.1 behind Akhil Sheoran. He fired a 10.6 to Akhil's 9.9 to secure victory with a final score of 463.6
Air Rifle and Air Pistol OST T2 qualification
Day eight of the ongoing OSTs also saw the qualification round of the men's and women's 10m air rifle and air pistol T2 qualification round taking place.
Nancy continued her excellent current form to top the women's air rifle with a score of 633.1. Sandeep Singh was best in the men's event with an equally solid 632.6.
In the women's air pistol, Rhythm Sangwan was on top of the leader board with a score of 584 while Sarabjot Singh topped the men's air pistol qualification with 581. All the four finals are slated for the concluding day on Saturday.
