Chateauroux, France: The young Manu Bhaker lifted the morale of a somewhat disappointing opening day for the Indian shooting contingent by qualifying for the final of the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Chateauroux Shooting Range, a quaint little city around 270 kilometres from Paris.
The prodigious 22-year-old, competing in her second Olympics and determined to add the one piece of silverware missing from her illustrious cabinet, appeared focussed right from the first bullet to finish third in the qualification and setting herself up nicely for Sunday’s final where she’ll be watched with bated breath.
Bhaker, carrying a burden of expectations after the 10m air rifle mixed teams fumbled in their qualification rounds with the duo of Arjun Babuta and Ramita finishing sixth and the lead pair of Sandeep Singh and Elavenil Valarivan fumbling to 12th, barely missed a mark as she comfortably aced her primary target of putting herself in medal contention. Bhaker meant business right from the word go as she fired 97 and 97 in her first two rounds. She upped the ante in the third with a score of 98 before shooting 96 each in her last three attempts.
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While Bhaker totally lived up to her high expectations, the rest of her colleagues couldn’t quite replicate the form they’d been showing in the build-up to the Olympics. Armyman Sandeep, who shot some sensational scores in the trials held at New Delhi and Bhopal that saw him gain a stunning entry into the team at the cost of former world champion Rudrankksh Patil, a quota place winner, and Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar appeared beset by nerves.
Competing in probably his biggest event till date, Sandeep started with a 10.8 in his first shot but thereafter just fizzled out. He could only score a total of 104.1 in his first set of 10 shots, upped the tempo to 105.3 in his second set before managing 104.3 in his final set.
With his partner, the highly rated Valarivan also struggling to find her usual rhythm that saw her take some time out to chat with her coach in a bid to regain her focus, the duo were pretty much out of top-four contention halfway through the competition.
Arjun and Ramita, however, offered some hope with a gutsy performance that saw them miss the cut by a whisker. The bubbly Ramita was solid throughout, scoring 104.6, 104.4 and 105.5 in her three sets. She was let down by a poor finish from Arjun, the 25-year-old caving in to time pressure by scoring 103.9 in his final series. This after having started with 104.1 and 106.2. If only Arjun had a score in the vicinity of 105s, India could have opened their medal account.
“It was a roller coaster ride but all throughout the 30 shots we were in contention. Both of us tried our best. We did whatever we could, strategised everything and followed the process. We missed the medal rounds by a small margin but we take heart from this performance. We have individual rounds and we are looking forward to that,” said Arjun.
Sarabhjot Singh endured a similar disappointment of missing the cut by a whisker by finishing ninth — only top-eight qualify for final — in the men’s 10m air pistol. A poor score of 93 in his fifth series right after firing the perfect 100 in the previous one cooked his goose. His colleague Arjun Singh Cheema was 18th while the highly rated Rhythm Sangwan misfired to end 15th in the corresponding women’s event.
All hopes rest on the shoulders of Bhaker as she looks to open India’s medal account on Sunday.