Indian female 10m air pistol shooters were not able to deliver the goods on the given day.
India’s double Olympic Games bronze medallist, Manu Bhaker, finished fifth in the individual women’s 10m air pistol event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan. The national women’s 10m air pistol team narrowly missed the podium finish and will return empty handed as they finished fourth overall.
The national women’s 10m air pistol shooters had won three medals, including gold through Palak Gulia in the previous edition of the Hangzhou Asian Games held in 2023 in China. Esha Singh had won individual silver. The team also won silver.
ManuBhaker shot 579/600 to finish third in the women’s 10m air pistol qualification. She started the eight-shooter final strongly. However, in the closing stage of the 24-shot final, she lost the momentum to eventually finish fifth.
The women’s 10m air pistol team of Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Suruchi Inder Singh finished fourth. The Indian team was edged out by Vietnam. Both the teams had an identical score of 1719, but Vietnam shooters had 46 inner 10s as compared to India’s 44.
China won the team gold with 1735 points. South Korea took silver with 1730 points.
The team medals are calculated by the performance of individual shooters in the qualification round. Esha Singh finished 15th in the individual qualification with 572. Suruchi shot 568 to finish 26th.
Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh will compete in the women’s 25m pistol event. Suruchi will compete in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
EOM
