Double Olympic-medallist shooter Manu Bhaker and multiple Asian Games medal winner Esha Singh suffered a meltdown in the women's 10m air pistol final as the country's top-two shooters could not win a medal in the ISSF World Championships, on Monday.
Manu, winner of the 10m air pistol individual and mixed team bronze at the Paris Olympics, had things going her way in the final before a poor 8.8 on the 14th shot saw her take a mighty tumble from the top spot to seventh as she finished with a score of 139.5.
Esha, who recently won the World Cup gold in Ningbo, China, too could not turn her dream runs into a medal as inconsistencies and nerves got the better of her on the big stage as the 20-year-old faltered with an 8.4 on the 14th shot after a superb 10.7 to finish sixth in the eight-shooter final.
China's 20-year-old Yao Qianxun earned the biggest medal of her nascent career by shooting a superb 243.0, while Hong Kong-China's Ho Ching Shing (241.2) and Wei Qian (China, 221.4) took the silver and bronze respectively.
India got a small consolation by winning a team silver with Esha (583), Manu (580) and world No.1 Suruchi Inder Singh (577) aggregating 1740 for the second-place finish.
Both Esha and Manu came into the final on the back of solid performances in qualification. Esha, who became the youngest ever national champion in the air pistol at the age of 13 and represented India in the women's 25m pistol at the Paris Olympics, shot superbly to finish the qualification round placed fourth with a score of 583.
She even tallied a rare perfect-100 in the third series to enter the final on a high. Manu shot 580 in qualification to finish sixth and make the eight-shooter final.
She took the lead on the 13th shot in the final with a superb 10.7 but the next one - an 8.8 - led to her elimination.
The third Indian, 19-year-old Suruchi, who has won four World Cup gold medals this year to rise to No.1, shot satisfactorily to score 577 but, in a high-class field, it was only good enough to fetch her 14th place among 99 shooters.
India are placed fifth on the medals table with one gold, three silver and two bronze. China are leading with six gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
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