Yashaswini shoots gold, secures 9th Olympic quota

Rio de Janerio: An authoritative Yashaswini Singh Deswal secured India's ninth Olympic quota in style, upstaging the women's 10m air pistol's numero uno shooter Olena Kostevych of Ukraine for a gold in the ISSF World Cup here.

The 22-year-old former junior world champion on Saturday recorded 236.7 in the eight-woman final of the season's fourth ISSF World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters.

Ukraine's world number one Kostevych, also a former Olympic and world champion, claimed the silver with 234.8, while Serbia's Jasmina Milavonovic bagged the bronze with 215.7. Such was the dominance of Yashaswini that she ended the final a massive 1.9 points ahead of the event's next best performer, Kostevych.

Yashaswini, a student of Economics, had also topped the qualifications by a mile, aggregating a score of 582.

Starting the finals with 10.1, 10.5 and 10.1, the Indian was third after the first five-shot series of stage 1. A 10.6 pushed her to number two and a 10.1 to the top, eventually ending the stage as number one.

She started the elimination rounds with a bumper 10.4, which was followed by 10.0.

The standing was not disturbed despite a 9 as her lead was pretty big by that time.

She briefly slipped to second with a 9.1, but a humongous 10.8, soon after, firmly established Yashaswini's place at the top.

After confirming the quota, Yashaswini shot a perfect 10.9, extending her dominance and securing the top prize with an effortless performance.