Asian Games: Fatigued India settle for bronze in 10m air pistol

For the second day running, it was shooting that brought India the medals. No, change that to singular, because one bronze in men's 10m air pistol team event was all that India had to show for the second day of the 17th Asian Games

Incheon: For the second day running, it was shooting that brought India the medals. No, change that to singular, because one bronze in men's 10m air pistol team event was all that India had to show for the second day of the 17th Asian Games.


India's 10m air pistol shooting team of Jitu Rai (left), Samaresh Jung (centre) and Prakash Nanjappa pose with their bronze medals yesterday. Pic/AFP 

First day's Golden Man, Jitu Rai's 585, which helped him reach the final, and the efforts of comeback man, Samaresh Jung (580), who missed making the eight-man final by a whisker, and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Prakash Nanjappa (578) enabled India to total 1743, the same as China's score.

But China's tally of better 'inner 10s' — bullseye, a way to break ties — by 65 to 64 saw the sliver slip through. The gold was won by hosts South Korea with a combined tally of 1744. Rai missed out on an individual medal in 10m pistol, but he did become the first double medallist from India at these Games following his team bronze.

Exhaustion takes toll
Elsewhere there was disappointment, as an exhausted Rai finished only fifth in the finals and men's Trap team of Mansher Singh (11th with 117), Manavjit Sandhu (14th with 116) and Darius Kynan (36th with 108) failed to qualify for the final and finished sixth among 15 teams team.

The Games are only two days old, but the Indian shooters are a tired lot. For them it has been a long season. Fatigue has begun to show on Rai's face and performance — the last shot of the final in which he won gold on Saturday was a mere 8.4 and yesterday a 7.8 put paid to his hopes.

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