Maheshwari Chauhan and Anand Naruka miss medal by a point in Mixed Team Skeet

Maheshwari Chauhan and Anand Naruka miss medal by a point in Mixed Team Skeet

In a field that included legendary Olympic champions like the USA’s Vincent Hancock, Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti and Diana Bacosi, and the women’s individual bronze medallist from Paris, Austen Smith, the Indian pairing of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anand Jeet Singh Naruka were given next to no chance of making it into the medal round of the Skeet Mixed Team event. But make it they did. But in the bronze-medal match against China, they fell agonizingly short, continuing the depressing trend of Indians finishing a step behind the podium.

In Olympic Skeet shooting, two throwing machines at different heights launch targets in a specific order, some as singles and some as doubles, while the shooter takes aim from a stationary position. In the qualifying round, India had 150 shots, 75 for each shooter, in three sets of 25. Maheshwari was exceptional, tallying 24, 25 and 25 to match Bacosi, who had been women’s gold medallist in Rio in 2016.

Naruka had scores of 25, 23 and 24, as India’s aggregate of 146 put them two clear of Italy’s second team in fifth place. Bacosi and Rossetti topped with 149, while the American duo of Hancock and Smith were a point behind. Both Hancock and Rossetti shot perfect 75s.

In the medal round, each shooter gets just 24 shots, in six sets of four. Jiang Yiting, China’s female shooter, started poorly, with four misses in the first 12 shots. Fortunately for her, Lyu Jianlin, her partner, shot perfectly. For India, both Maheshwari and Naruka missed two of their first 12 shots, leaving the scores tied at halfway.

Thereafter, both teams made barely an error. Ultimately, it was Maheshwari’s only miss of the second half, her 16th shot, that cost India a medal. The final score was 44-43 in China’s favour. Lyu was the only shooter across the bronze and gold medal matches to miss not even a shot.

This result was one more bitter pill for India to swallow. Manu Bhaker had missed a third medal by losing in a shoot-off in the women’s 25m pistol event, while Arjun Babuta finished fourth by a whisker in the men’s 10m Air Rifle. The men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol duo of Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala were both on course to qualify for the final, before awful final rounds of 92 and 93 saw them finish outside the top six.

Li Yuehong, who ended up taking gold in that event, was a point behind Sidhu before those final 10 shots in qualifying. But he shot a 98 to clinch his place in the final, and then produced sequences of 5, 4 and 5 in the elimination rounds in the final to clinch gold. Those are the standards that India’s shooters need to aspire to.

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