Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema shone in patches but failed to reach the final of the men’s 10m air rifle after both the mixed air rifle teams also fell by the wayside during qualification in a disappointing start for the Indian shooters in the Olympic Games on Saturday. Sarabjot finished ninth with a total score of 577 in the qualifiers, while Arjun finished well behind in 18th with 574. Germany’s Robin Walter, who also scored 577, took the last (eighth) qualifying spot after managing to shoot an inside 10 ( X) more than Sarabjot’s 16. A perfect 100 in the fourth series propelled 22-year-old Sarabjot into the top three after a poor start, but he was unable to maintain the momentum and failed.
Cheema hit 10 perfect 10s in his last 10 shots, which took him to fourth position, but he also lost his way after promising too much.
Cheema, 23, scored 97 points in Series 2 (8, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10) and came 10th on the list. He scored 96 points in Series 1. However, a poor 7 followed by a 9 from Cheema saw him drop out of the top eight.
Both Cheema and Sarabjot were part of the Indian team that won the 10m air pistol team gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
Disappointment in mixed rifle event
Earlier in the day, Indian shooters were eliminated in the 10m air rifle mixed team qualification phase.
Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta finished sixth with a total score of 628.7, while Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh finished 12th with an aggregate score of 626.3.
The pair Ramita and Babuta came close and placed fifth with three shots remaining, but were 1.0 points below the medal round threshold.
Babuta had a good start in the second relay and had a run of 10.5, 10.6, 10.5, 10.9, while Ramita managed 10.2, 10.7, 10.3, 10.1 in the second set .
But to get to the bronze medal round, they needed to do more than what they ended up achieving. Shooters from China, Korea and Kazakhstan dominated the qualifiers.
China ended up winning the first gold medal of the Games in this event, after qualifying as the best team for the finals.
A side needs to reach the top four to enter the medal matches.
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