Indian 10m air pistol shooters off target, miss Paris Olympic quota places on Thursday

Indian shooters failed to impress in the 10m air pistol events at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

On Thursday, August 17, both male and female shooters were unsuccessful in entering the medal round in the prestigious event which offers four Paris Olympic quota places in each of the events.

A team bronze was the only saving grace elite men’s shooters had on Thursday. The trio of Shiva Narwal, Sarabjot Singh, and Arjun Singh Cheema won team bronze with a combined score of 1734 points. China won team gold (1749), while silver (1743) went to Germany.

Chinese shooters also dominated both men's and women’s individual events.

In a highly competitive individual 10m air pistol event, India's Shiva shot 579 out of a possible 600 in qualification to finish in 17th place. While Sarabjot scored 578 and Arjun Cheema shot 577. There were 124 shooters in the fray.

In the women’s 10m air pistol individual event, India's Esha Singh shot 572 to finish 32nd. Palak shot a 570 to finish 40th while Divya T.S. shot 566.

Only the top eight shooters in the qualification enter the medal round.

Zhang Bowen of China won the men’s 10m air pistol gold with a score of 244.3 points, topping the qualification with 587 points.

Serbia’s seasoned shooter Damir Mikec took home silver with 240.8 points. Bulgaria’s Kiril Kirov settled for silver with 215.7 points.

In the women’s final, China’s 2020 Tokyo Olympic medalist Jiang Ranxin won gold with 239.8 points.

Rio Olympic bronze medalist Anna Korakaki from Greece clinched silver with 238.3 points. She had topped the qualification list with 584 points.

China also claimed bronze through Xue Li 218.9 points.

The men's and women’s skeet shooting qualifications also began on Thursday. Men's skeet qualification day one saw at least 10 shooters bunched together having shot a perfect 50 out of 50 after two rounds of 25 each.

India’s Angadvir Singh Bajwa shot a round of 23 and 24 for an aggregate of 47, while Anant Jeet Singh Naruka's aggregate score after two rounds was 48 (24, 24),