Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh enter bronze medal round but heartbreak for Arjun Babuta

Chateauroux, July 29

A confident Manu Bhaker placed herself in contention for a second Olympics 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 the men’s 10m air rifle competition here today. In the women’s 10m air rifle final, Ramita Jindal ended seventh.

Babuta shot a total of 208.4 in the 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 tomorrow.

The Indians will face South 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.

Turkey, after equalling qualification Olympics record with 582, and Serbia (581), who finished second, 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.

The 25-year-old Babuta, who was the last Indian shooter to take aim today, started the 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, following that with a 10.5. He shot a near-perfect 10.8 with the second shot of the first elimination series. That effort propelled him into 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.

Abhinav Bindra, India’s sole Olympics gold medal-winning shooter, too had come fourth in Rio 2016 in the same event. Bindra was among the first ones to console a crestfallen Arjun.

“He told me that fourth place will make me stronger and that it was important to move on. Whether you laugh it off or do something else, he told me to take it with a smile and move,” said Babuta.

“It was not my day. It is very hard to deal with fourth. It is the worst place to finish. It is disheartening,” he added. “I need to think about where I could have improved. I feel I have to fight them with counter thoughts,” he added. — PTI