Paris Olympics: Manu Bhaker shines on day of near misses for India as China take first gold in shooting

Paris: Manu Bhaker gave the Indian shooting contingent a reason to smile in the end, qualifying for the final of the Women’s 10m Air Pistol event on Day One of the Paris 2024 Olympics Shooting competition, at the French National Shooting Centre range in Chateauroux.

Manu’s qualifying score of 580 gave her third spot in the 44-strong field, as the top eight including topper Veronika Major (582) of Hungary, come back on Sunday for the final. This would be the Indian pistol ace’s first Olympic final.

On what was turning out to be a day of near misses for India, Manu’s performance in the final event of the day brought confidence. Manu shot consistently well throughout the 60-shot qualification, staying above the cut line for the entire length. Compatriot Rhythm Sangwan shot 573 to finish 15th and missed out by four points.

Earlier, both Indian pairs in the fray in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event, the first medal event of the Games, could not cross the qualification hurdle.

Ramita and Arjun Babuta fought hard to shoot 628.7 and finish sixth in the 28-team field, as the top four scores (China, Korea, Kazakhstan, Germany) made it to the gold and bronze medal matches respectively. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh, the second Indian pair in the field, shot 626.3 to finish 12th.

The setbacks continued for India as Sarabjot Singh in the 10m Air Pistol Men, agonisingly missed making the medal round, tallying the same score of 577 with two others. However German shooter Robin Walter grabbed the coveted eighth and final qualifying spot, having landed one more shot in the inner 10-ring than the Indian, who bowed out in ninth place.

His teammate, Arjun Singh Cheema fought valiantly as well and was even up to third at one stage, finishing on a score of 574 for an 18th spot in the qualifying round.

Sheng Liaho and Huang Yuting beat Korea’s Park Ha-Jun and Keum Ji-Hyeon 16-12 in the decider to claim the Paris Olympics’ first gold medal. Kazakhstan won the bronze through the pair of Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev, who outclassed Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich of Germany 17-5 in the bronze decider.

–IANS