Shooting: Manu-Sarabjot duo enters bronze medal round; heartbreak for Babuta

Chateauroux (France), July 29

A confident Manu Bhaker placed herself in contention for a second Olympic medal as she combined with Sarabjot Singh to make the bronze playoff of the 10m air pistol mixed team event but Arjun Babuta buckled under pressure to finish fourth in men’s 10m air rifle competition here on Monday.

In the women’s 10m air rifle final, Ramita Jindal ended seventh.

Babuta shot a total of 208.4 in the air rifle individual final. A last shot of 9.5, in response to Croatian Miran Maricic’s 10.7, put paid to his hopes of finishing on the podium.

Earlier, the 22-year-old Bhaker, who came into the mixed team qualifications after winning a historic bronze medal in the 10m women’s air pistol event on Sunday, and Sarabjot finished with a total of 580 to make the medal round to be held on Tuesday.

The Indians will face Korea’s Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho, who shot 579, in the bronze-medal match.

The other Indian pair of Rhythm Sangwan and Arjun Singh Cheema finished 10th with a score of 576 and failed to make it to the medal rounds.

Turkiye, after equalling Qualification Olympic Record with 582, and Serbia (581), who finished second, respectively, will contest the gold-medal match.

Bhaker was sensational with her 98s in the first two series, but a 95 in the third set pulled the team down a bit. However, the pair did enough to make the medal round in the end.

Sarabjot, who missed out on gaining a spot in the finals of the men’s 10m air pistol event by a whisker, shot 97 in the second and third, after a 95 in the first.

Panicking after strong start

The 25-year-old Babuta, who was the last Indian shooter to take aim on Monday, started the 10m air rifle final with a 10.7 and followed that with a 10.2.

A third shot of 10.5 saw him take the fourth spot while a 10.4 in his fourth attempt lifted him to the third spot. He finished the first series with a solid 10.6.

He started the second series with a 10.7, followed that with a 10.5 and shot a near-perfect 10.8 in the second shot of the first elimination series.

That effort propelled him into the second place while reducing the deficit between him and world record holder Chinese Sheng Lihao to 0.1 point.

However, he could not sustain the form and missed out on the medal.

Babuta, who took up rifle shooting at the insistence of Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra’s coach JS Dhillon, will need time to recover from this heartbreak after having come so close to making his Games debut memorable with a podium finish.

Lihao claimed the top honours in this event with an Olympic record of 252.2. Sweden’s Victor Lindgren took the silver medal with a score of 251.4, followed by Maricic (230) at the third spot.

Ramita faces tough competition

Young Indian shooter Ramita’s score was 145.3 when she bowed of the high-quality eight-women final. She was placed seventh after 10 shots (104.0), when the elimination began.

In danger of being eliminated, a 10.5 pushed Ramita to sixth place even as Norway’s Hegg Jeanette Duestad made an exit. But the Indian could not save herself after that.

She was placed fourth at one point but failed to maintain the momentum.

In the qualifications on Sunday, she performed exceedingly well to make the final in the fifth place.

Ramita, the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze-medallist in the event, beat World Championship medallist Mehuli Ghosh and Tilottama Sen at the domestic trials to make it to Paris Games.