Turkiye’s Sevval Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec equalled the Olympic 10m pistol mixed team qualification record of 582 points - set by India at the Tokyo 2020 Games – on a day when the Chinese grip on the event was released.
The Turkish pair (pictured) finished one point ahead of Serbia’s world No.1 Zorana Arunovic and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Damir Mikec, whom they will meet in tomorrow’s final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
Tarhan and Dikec have underlined their serious potential this season by winning at the Final Olympic qualifier in Rio and the Munich World Cup, beating China’s Jiang Ranxin and Xie Yu.
Jiang won the inaugural Olympic gold in this event with Pang Wei three years ago, setting the first Olympic record, and has since become world champion, But she and Xie finished eighth today, one place ahead of Germany’s world champion Doreen Vennekamp and World Cup Final champion Robin Walter.
The second Chinese pairing of Li Xue and world champion Zhang Bowen missed out on qualification by one place today.
Manu Bhaker, who became the first Indian woman to earn an Olympic shooting sport medal yesterday as she took bronze in the individual final, will contest another bronze today in company with Sarabjot Singh after the pair finished third on 579.
Their opponents tomorrow, who finished one point behind them today, will be the Republic of Korea pair of Oh Ye Jin, the women’s 10m air pistol gold medallist, and Lee Wonho, who finished fourth in the men’s final.