Pistol shooter Gurpreet Singh ended the first day of the qualification round of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event with a decent show as he managed a tally of 289 points from the available 300, which placed him at the 10th spot. He is the only Indian who has qualified for the event at the Rio Olympic Games and will look to improve his form going into the second and final day of the event tomorrow.
The 29-year old shooter started the event by obtaining a perfect 100 points in the first series of 10 shots which are taken within a time-span of 8 seconds. It meant that the Indian became one of only two shooters who obtained a perfect 100 in their first series along with Germany’s Christian Reitz. It was a good first series for the two shooters who occupied first and second position in the points table.
Also read: Rio Olympics 2016, India shooting: Mairaj Ahmad Khan finishes day 1 of Skeet qualifiers in 10th
Singh continued his form in the second series and scored a total of 99 points where the 10 shots are taken inside 6 seconds, which made him the top-ranked shooter in the qualification round. His German counterpart also managed the same tally from the second series, meaning the two shooters still occupied the first two spots. It was Singh who had surprised everyone with his shooting whereas Reitz was always expected to do well given his number two world ranking.
The third and final series for the day would see the Indian slip drastically in points as the 29-year old had to get his 10 shots inside the given 4 seconds. The Indian managed only 90 points from his third series which resulted in the shooter being placed at the fourth spot with 18 out of the 26 shooters still left to take their respective shots.
As the remaining batches of shooters took their shots and completed their respective three series, Gurpreet’s ranking in the table kept changing shot after shot. But fortunately for the Indian, not many of the remaining shooters could better his score of 289, which shifted the Indian to the 10th spot in the standings. The remaining three series of shots will be conducted tomorrow which will be followed by the final round where only the top-6 shooters will feature.
After Vijay Kumar had made India proud in this event by winning the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, maybe it is time for Gurpreet Singh to go one step ahead and win the gold medal tomorrow. But there is still some serious work that needs to be done by the Army man before he can finally have a realistic chance at the medal. Here is how the top six look like at the end of day one of qualifying:
1) Christian Reitz – 296-15x
2) Jean Quiquampoax – 293-11x
3) Pavlo Korostylov – 293-6x
4) Fusheng Zhang – 292-12x
5) Riccardo Mazzetti – 292-10x
6) Oliver Geis – 291-13X
The second stage of qualification will be held tomorrow.
