In the ongoing Asian Games 2023, the Indian shooting contingent got off to an excellent start on Thursday, September 28. The team of Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema, and Shiva Narwal pulled off a brilliant victory over the Chinese in the 10m air pistol men's final event. Vietnam came third and took home the bronze medal.
In a stunning display of workmanship and craft, India sailed past their opponents rather comfortably and ensured that not a lot was left to chance.
In the final of the event, India managed to earn 1734-50x points in comparison to China's 1733-62x. While Sarabjot finished with scores of 95, 95, 97, 98, 97, 98; Arjun and Narwal ended up with scores of 97, 96, 97, 97, 96, 95 and 92, 96, 97, 99, 97, 95, respectively.
The Indians were at the top of their game and veritably blew the Chinese and the Vietnamese away. The Chinese shooters seemed to be in awe of the grace that their Indian counterparts had and were left wishing for more accuracy in the final.
Vietnam ran China close but could only end up being third with a cumulative score of 1730-59x.
Individual medal missed by India in men's 10-metre air pistol final in Asian Games
Despite having a headstart earlier in the day, India could not quite carry through with their performance. Arjun Singh Cheema and Sarabjot Singh both qualified for the final of the men's 10-metre air pistol final, but neither could make it count. Their partner Shiva Narwal did not qualify for the final.
Although Sarabjot came extremely close to getting a bronze medal, ultimately, he had to settle for fourth place. He ended with a cumulative score of 199 whereas Uzbekistan's Vladimir Svechnikov, who came third, had 219.9 points to his name.
Cheema did not make it that far and was ranked a distant eighth at the end of the competition. He could only amass 113.3 points in the event. Sarabjot will be extremely disappointed with himself given how close he came to an individual medal, but sadly, it was not to be.
India will have to be content with the team gold medal that they bagged earlier in the day. Sarabjot's case later on was one of what might have been.
In other news, in the Skeet Mixed Team qualifications, India's Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Ganemat Sekhon came seventh out of eight participants with a rather disappointing 138 cumulative points. They missed out on qualification by some distance.
