Since the shooting events of the Paris Olympics began at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre last week, not a day passed without the Indian shooters, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale leading the charge with three bronze between them, bringing glad tidings.
As the competition winds towards closure, Sunday turned out to be an exception as the country’s hopes in Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and Women’s Skeet were dashed.
Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu came into their maiden Olympics with dreams of making the country proud in an event in which Vijay Kumar had claimed silver at the 2012 London Olympics.
It was not to be as despite running the top qualifiers close in qualification, Anish, 21, and Vijayveer, 22, fell short by a few points.
Both shooters looked strong during Stage 1 of qualification with a score of 293, but lost the race in the closing stages of Stage 2. Vijayveer shot a shaky last series of 92 to finish 9th with 583, while Anish was done in by the 94 to end 13th at 582.
China’s domination was on view as the duo of Yuehong Liu (588), who shot a world record score of 39 at Baku last year, and Xinjie Wang (587) took the top-two spots. Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov shot an identical 587, but settled for the 3rd spot among the six names to qualify on account of shooting lesser inner 10s compared to Wang.
After Manu’s twin bronze medals, India’s hopes of one final individual medal ended with women skeet shooters Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon also falling short in qualification on the penultimate day of competition.
Maheshwari, 28, who won silver in the Olympic Qualification Championship in Doha, could not bring forth a performance that could have given her a shot at a medal in the final later in the day. She shot 118 to finish 14th, while the 20-year-old Raiza shot 113 to lie 23rd.
The qualification was topped by Jewell Austen Smith of USA with a 122, but the 23-year-old, featuring in her second Olympics after Tokyo, had to settle for bronze with a 45. Gold went to Chile’s hugely experienced Francisca Chadid Crovetto (55). The three-time Olympian beat Britian’s Rio Olympian, Jo Amber Rutter, in the shoot-off.
Despite the disappointment, the future holds out hope for the four Indian shooters as they will be returning home richer in experience and with an outlook that comes with the tag of an Olympian.