Paris [France], July 27 (ANI): India’s disappointing run in shooting continued in Paris Olympics with Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Cheema failing to make it to the final round of the men’s 10 m air pistol competition on Saturday.
Cheema (18th spot with 574-17x points) and Sarabjot (9th spot with 577-16x points) failed to make it to the final eight who qualified for the medal round.
In the qualification round for the 10 m air pistol men’s competition, players can take 60 shots within a time frame of 75 minutes. Only eight players out of 33 could qualify for the medal round set to take place on Sunday.
After his first series of shots, Cheema ended at 12th place with 96 points, while Sarabjot ended at 28th place with 94 points.
In the second series, Cheema rose to 10th spot with perfect 10s in his last five shots. His score was 97 in the second series. Sarabjot was also at the 10th spot with 97 points.
At the end of his third series, Sarabjot dropped once again, near to the bottom half of the table to 17th place with 96 points scored in his 10 shots. However, Cheema kept scoring brilliantly, moving to fourth spot at the end of his third series.
Sarabjot moved into top eight at the end of his fourth series, reaching the third spot thanks to a full series of perfect 10-point shots.
Cheema, with 94 points in his fourth series, stayed outside top eight, at 14th
With 93 in his fifth series, Cheema continued to drop and went to 21st position. Sarabjot on the other hand, dropped to 12th with 93 in his fifth series. The two Indian players both needed an incredible last series to get into the top eight.
At the end of the final series, Cheema was at 18th spot, a total of 574-17x, while Sarabjot ended at ninth place with a total of 577-16x points.
Earlier, India’s shooting campaign in shooting in the Paris 2024 Olympics started with a disappointment as two Indian teams in action during the qualification round in the 10 m air rifle mixed team events failed to make it to the medal matches on Saturday.
Two Indian pairs, Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh and Arjun Babuta and Ramita Jindal, took part in the 10 m air rifle mixed teams qualifiers. Only four teams out of 28 had the privilege of qualifying further for the knockout stages, i.e., a gold medal match for the top two teams and a bronze medal match for teams ranked third and fourth. India could not make it to the final four.
Ramita and Arjun finished in sixth place with a total of 628.7 points after three series, out of which Ramita managed 314.5 and Arjun got 314.2 points. They fell just one point short of Germany, who finished at number four with 629.7.
On the other hand, the pair of Elavenil and Sandeep finished in 12th place with 626.3 points, with Elavenil scoring 312.6 points and Sandeep got 313.7 points.
The 10 m air pistol qualification for women’s shooters, including India’s Manu Bhaker and Rhythm Sangwan will take place from 4 pm. (ANI)
