Shooter Vedpathak makes it

Bombay's Anjali Vedpathak has made it to the Indian shooting squad for the Sydney Olympics.

National Rifle Association of India secretary Baljit Singh Sethi said the International Shooting Sport Federation decided to give the 29-year-old shooter a hardship quota slot because of her consistent showing in the five World Cup competitions in 1999-2000.

Anjali had scored 395 and 396 out of 400 in all these competitions. She also made it to the finals of four World Cup events.

Anjali is the second Indian to get the privilege after teenager Abhinav Bindra of Chandigarh. Both will take part in the air rifle event.

With this, the Indian shooting team for the Olympics will have three members, Anwar Sultan having qualified in the trap event earlier.

Anjali narrowly missed direct qualification at the Asian championship in Lankawi (Malaysia), where she lost out by 0.8 points. Sultan qualified for the Olympics in this championship.

The ISSF also selected four Indian shooters to take part in the World Cup finals at Nicosia (shotgun events) and Munich (rifle, pistol) in October and November. They are: Anjali Vedpathak (air rifle), Abhinav Bindra (air rifle), Manavjit Singh (trap) and R V S Rathore (double trap).

UNI