Asian Games: Another day, another bronze for India shooters

For third straight day, Indian marksmen bring home bronze, this time thanks to the team of Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu

Incheon: Besides Jitu Rai's gold medal on the very first day of the ongoing Asian Games, India's shooters have consistently won a bronze medal every day of the Incheon event.


India's bronze medal-winning trio Anisa Sayyed (left), Rahi Sarnobat and Heena Sidhu (right) during the medal ceremony yesterday. Pic/PTI 

As medals for women's team event in badminton and women's singles in squash were also added into the tally, India now has one gold and five bronze medals. Of the six medals, four, including the solitary gold, have come from shooting.

Yesterday's bronze medal was earned by the women's 25m pistol team, spearheaded by Rahi Sarnobat, whose recovery from an elbow injury is not complete.

After the success of Commonwealth Games, where she struck gold in 25m pistol, Rahi qualified for the final here at Incheon but was eliminated early.

But her qualifying scores (289 + 291), which gave her eighth place in standings, helped the Indian trio — Anisa Sayyed (283 + 294) and Heena Sidhu (291 + 281) — take the bronze medal behind hosts South Korea and China.

The qualifying is held in rapid and precision categories and the total of all three shooters are taken for team medals to be decided.

After the medal ceremony, Rahi said, "I haven't yet fully recovered as the right elbow which still aches. Given the circumstances I am happy to have helped India win a team bronze."

In the individual final, Rahi was the second to get eliminated and finished seventh.

She added, "A score of 575 earned me gold in Glasgow, but 580 was just good enough to be eighth and I didn't win a medal.... so it's all relative."

In the 10m air rifle women's team, Ayonika Paul made the final, but the team, which also included Apurvi Chandela and Raj Chaudhary finished fifth with an aggregate score of 1239.1.

Ayonika, like Rahi in 25m pistol event, was second to be eliminated in the final, finishing seventh. "Yes, it's been disappointing, the World Championships in Granada and now the Asian Games. I made it to the finals in Granada and finished eighth, here I ended up seventh," the 21-year-old Ayonika said.

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