Tokyo: Manu Bhaker seemed to have put behind the Olympics ghost after the teenage Indian shooter produced a stellar performance in the Precision round of women’s 25 Pistol Qualification at the Asaka Shooting Range on Thursday.
The teen, who had a rather unlucky outing enduring a pistol malfunction during her 10m Air Pistol Qualification round and a poor outing during the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event, made a remarkable comeback to finish an impressive fifth in the 44-woman field during the Precision round of the Women’s 25m Pistol.
Bhaker shot 592 with 9 inner 10s. She opened with a 97 and managed another 97 before finishing off strongly with a 98. Meanwhile, another Indian in the event, Rahi Sarnobat finished a disappointing 25th. She finished with a 96 followed by a 97 before slumping to a lowly 94. Sarnobat shot 12 inner 10s.
Both the Indian shooters will be in action on Friday in the Rapid round. Each shooter will have 3 series of 10 shots each and the top 8 after both the Precision and the Rapid rounds will make the final.
Sajan Prakash finishes second in Heat 2
India’s swimming competition at the Tokyo Olympics came to an end on Thursday after Sajan Prakash failed to qualify for the semifinals despite finishing second in Heat 2 in the men’s 100m butterfly.
Prakash clocked 53.45s behind Ghana’s Abeku Jackson (53.39s). His overall ranking was 46th. The top 16 swimmers in the Heats qualify for the semifinals. His personal best in the event is 53.27s. Prakash started slowly clocking 25s in the first 50m but sped up to finish second-best.
