Chateauroux, Jul 27 (IANS): India’s top medal hopeful in shooting, Manu Bhaker got off to a strong start at the Paris Olympics as she scored 580-27x in the qualification round to finish third, securing a place in the final of the women’s 10m Air Pistol event. Bhaker’s qualification attempt saw her register scores of 97, 97, 98, 96, 96, and 96 in the six rounds to finish third behind Hungary’s Veronika Major (582-22x) and Republic of Korea’s Oh YeJin (582-20x).

India’s second athlete in the category, Rhythm Sangwan failed to qualify with a 15th-place finish after an abysmal outing saw her score 573-14x.

Manu became the first Indian shooter to qualify for the finals of the event after India’s 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams, Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal and both men’s shooters Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema failed to qualify for the Men's 10m Air Pistol Final and were eliminated in the qualification round.

The final of the Women’s 10M Air Pistol event will take place on Sunday.