Palembang: India opened their account in the Asian Games with a bronze medal after Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar cracked under pressure to finish third in 10m air rifle mixed team shooting event here Sunday.
The Indians aggregated 429.9 after 42 shots in the 48-shot final and were in second spot for major part before China overtook them to take the silver.
The strong Chinese pairing of Ruozhu Zhao and Haoran Yang ended with a score of 492.5. Chinese Taipei’s Yingshin Lin and Shaochuan Lu clinched the gold with a score of 494.1.
It was a maiden Asiad medal for Chandela, who will be aiming for a better colour medal in the 10m air rifle event. Chandela is also a multiple time World Cup winner and has bagged gold at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
World Cup bronze medallist Kumar, who is mentored by the great Abhinav Bindra, had won a men’s 10m rifle team bronze at last the edition at Incheon.
Chandela, having won the first Games medal for the country, was satisfied with her performance. “Our best finish together was fourth at the World Cup and we have improved on that. My first Asiad medal and my first medal for India here. I am really happy about that but my focus is on main event (10m rifle) Monday,” Chandela stated.
Kumar said, “This bronze has come only because of Apurvi. The final was a disappointment after a decent qualification. We didn’t get enough time to train together.”
After the first series, India were second with 102.9 while Korea led with 103.4. Indian remained in that position even after the third series but the Chinese improved drastically to steal the second spot.
There was disappointment in store for teen sensation Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma, who failed to qualify for the 10m air pistol mixed team finals after being tied with Kazakhstan. Both teams were tied at 759 points after 80 shots but the Kazakh sealed the fifth and final qualifying spot with more inners 10s than India (25 to India’s 14).
In the men’s trap qualification, the seasoned Manavjit Singh Sandhu topped the first day chart with 72 out of 75, while Lakshay Sheoran was placed fifth with 71 after three out of five rounds.
In the women’s trap, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Shreyasi Singh was second with 71 out of 75, while Seema Tomar also with 71 was at fourth place. The top six qualify for the finals, slated for Monday.
PM congratulates shooters
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Sunday Indian shooters, Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar, for winning the country their first medal in the Asian Games. “Our talented shooters give us our first medal at the @asiangames2018. Well done @apurvichandela and Ravi Kumar for bagging the Bronze medal in the 10m Air rifle mixed team event,” Modi said in a tweet.