Paris Olympics: Indian shooters miss finals in skeet and 25m rapid fire pistol

Vijayveer and Anish shot brilliantly over two stages of qualification, staying in contention till the final 10 shots of the second rapid-fire stage, only to shoot scores of 92 and 93, finishing ninth and thirteenth respectively.

Chateauroux: Indian shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala gave a good account of themselves in the qualifications but could not enter the final of the 25m rapid fire men’s pistol event at the Olympic Games here on Sunday.

Vijayveer and Anish shot brilliantly over two stages of qualification, staying in contention till the final 10 shots of the second rapid-fire stage, only to shoot scores of 92 and 93, finishing ninth and 13th respectively.

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Only the top six shooters make the final cut. In the women’s skeet competition, Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon ended in 14th and 23rd place respectively in the qualification.

Maheshwari aggregated 118 across five series with the first three series taking place on Saturday. She recorded scores of 23, 24, 24, 25, 22.

Raiza aggregated 113 after a sequence that read 21, 22, 23, 23, 24. Here too, only the top six in the qualifications make it to the final.

Italy’s 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallist Diana Bacosi also failed to clear the qualifications, finishing just below Maheshwari at 15th place with a total of 117.

On the first day of qualifications, Maheshwari was closely following the leading pack at eighth position with an aggregate of 71. She had shot 23, 24, 24 and despite a 25 on Sunday, she could not make the cut. Raiza was placed 25th among 29 shooters with an aggregate of 66 (21, 22, 23).

In the men’s event, both shooters fired scores of 293 in the first precision stage to go into the rapid fire round in fifth and seventh positions. Vijayveer then shot a 100 and 98 in the first two rapid-fire series to move up to second at one stage as Anish also shot 99 and 97 to stay in touch with the top six. But the final round changed all of that.

India still has one more start in the shotgun competitions as Maheshwari comes back with Anant Jeet Singh Naruka for the mixed team skeet, an event which will be making an Olympic debut.