India’s opening day of the shooting competition at the Paris Olympics began in a way that it raised fears of another ominous start till Manu Bhaker stepped in and reversed the gloom.
Finishing third in qualification in Women’s 10m Air Pistol with a score of 580, Manu is in line for a medal, and should that happen on Sunday, it will help douse the pain of missing out in Tokyo 2021.
But Saturday began on a completely different note. The spectre of the Tokyo debacle looming large, the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams sent shockwaves in the Indian camp by failing to qualify for the medal rounds.
There was Elavenil Valarivan, also on a trip to redeeming herself after the poor 12th finish in 2021. She had a new partner in Sandeep Singh, but the change in date, venue and fresh pairing did nothing to better her dismal record in qualification.
Shooting 312.6 to Sandeep’s 313.7, the duo’s total of 626.3 left them 12th in the pecking order. Teaming up with Divyansh Singh Panwar in Tokyo, Elavenil had finished 12th as well.
The other Indian team of Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta fared better, but were unlucky to miss the final by a point after totalling 628.7. While Ramita shot 314.5, Arjun had a 314.2.
The qualification was topped by the Chinese pair of Yuting Huang (317) and Lihao Sheng (315.2) and their total of 632.2 set up the gold medal match with Korea’s Jihyeon Keum and Hajun Park, who finished at 631.4.
The bronze medal match was between Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev (630.8) and Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich (629.7).
In the final, it was China who edged out Korea 16-12 for gold, while the Kazakhs swamped the Germans 17-5 to take bronze for their first Olympic medal in shooting since 1996.
The tale was in no different for India in Men’s 10m Air Pistol. Sarabjot Singh shot a 577 to tie Germany’s Robin Walter, but lost out on a final spot and finished 9th on account of firing one less inner 10.
Sarabjot had seemed to be on strong wicket with a perfect 100 in the 4th series, but a 93 in the next one pulled him down.
Arjun Singh Cheema (574) finished way down at 18th.
Amid the gloom, Manu, 22, fired a 580 to lift Indian spirits with the third-best qualification score. Rhythm Sangwan (573) finished 15th, and in no way justified her World No 3 tag.
Making her second Olympic appearance after Tokyo, Manu, ranked No 26 in the world, was on a mission to redeem herself, and prove that the pistol malfunction in the qualification stage at Tokyo was a stroke of bad luck.
Her score on Saturday was 5 points more than what she registered in Tokyo, where she finished 12th after the unexpected turn of events.
Veronika Major of Hungary shot the best qualification score of 582, pipping Korea’s Jin Ye Oh to the top on shooting more inner 10s.