Paris Olympics: Manu Bhaker in final to bring only cheer on shooting range for India

Manu Bhaker gave the Indian shooting contingent a reason to smile in the end, qualifying for the final of the 10-metre Air Pistol women event on first day of the Paris 2024 Olympics shooting competition at the French National Shooting Centre range in Chateauroux.

Manu’s qualifying score of 580 gave her third spot in the 44-strong field, as the top eight including topper Veronika Major (582) of Hungary, to come back on Sunday for the final. This would be the Indian pistol ace’s first Olympic final.

On what was turning out to be a day of near misses for India, Manu’s performance in the final event of the day brought confidence. Manu shot consistently well throughout the 60-shot qualification, staying above the cut line for the entire length.

Compatriot Rhythm Sangwan shot 573 to finish 15th and missed out by four points.

Earlier both Indian pairs in the Mixed Team 10-metre Air Rifle event, the first gold medal to be awarded in the Games could not cross the qualification hurdle.

Ramita and Arjun Babuta fought hard to shoot 628.7 and finish sixth in the 28-team field, as the top four scores (China, Korea, Kazakhstan, Germany) made it to the gold and bronze medal matches respectively.

Olympian Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh, the second Indian pair in the field, shot 626.3 to finish 12 th overall.

In the 10-metre Air Pistol Men, Sarabjot Singh agonisingly missed making the title round, tallying the same score of 577 with two others. However, German Robin Walter grabbed the coveted eighth and final qualifying spot on just one more shot in the inner 10-ring than the Indian as he bowed out in ninth.

Teammate Arjun Singh Cheema fought valiantly as well and was even up to third at one stage, finishing on a score of 574 for an 18 th spot finish.

Sheng Liaho and Huang Yuting beat Korea’s Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon 16-12 in the decider to claim the Games’ first gold medal. Kazakhstan won a good bronze through the pair of Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev who outclassed Germany& Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich of Germany 17-5 in the bronze decider.