India won their first medal of the 18th Asian Games as Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar won the bronze in the 10m air rifle mixed team on Sunday. The Indian duo scored 429.9 in the five-team final to finish behind Chinese Taipei who won the gold and silver medallist China.
It was a tense final in the newly-added event as the top three places kept alternating between Chinese Taipei, Korea and India, before China not only saved elimination before the medal rounds but also push India down the podium.
In the qualification, the Indian pair had finished second behind Korea with a total score of 835.3
Also read: Asian Games Day 1, live blog
In the final, India were on second position after the first 30 shots with a score of 308.5, before the eliminations began. In the elimination rounds, Ravi Kumar was lagging with a few 9s, but Chandela, shooting second, scored a string of 10s to keep them in the hunt.
The Mongolian pair were the first to be eliminated with China languishing at fourth. But they staged a stunning fightback to climb up to second as Korea, the qualification toppers, were eliminated.
India, meanwhile, had been shooting well under pressure after falling down to third with 10.7 from Ravi, 10.4 from Chandela to go back to second. But the pressure at the end seemed to get to them. Tied with China in the series to determine the bronze medal, India shot a 9.7 + 10.6 and a 9.7 apiece to narrowly miss out on the silver.
Both of them will compete in the 10m air rifle individual rounds on Monday.
Good day for trap, mixed pistol team misses out
It was a good day for Indian trap shooters as all as all four were placed in the top five after the first day of qualifications. Former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu lead the men’s lineup with 72 out of 75 points, while youngster Lakshay was placed fifth with 71 points.
Sandhu scored 24 out of 25 in the third round. His compatriot made up for an average first round (22) with scores of 25 and 24 in the next two.
In the women’s qualification, Shreyasi Singh shot a perfect score of 25 in the third round of qualification to rise up to second in the table with a total of 71 out of 75, while Seema Tomar scores 24 in the third round to also reach a total of 71, but stands fourth overall. Kazakhstan’s Mariya Dmitriyenko tops the table after Day 1, missing only one target out of 75 across three rounds. The final two rounds of qualification will take place on Monday.
India’s 10m air pistol mixed team of Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma narrowly missed a final berth as they finished sixth in qualification with 759 points. Kazakhstan had the same score but had more inner 10s and they advanced to the five-team final.
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