Tokyo: Teenage Saurabh Chaudhary’s dreams of a Tokyo Olympics medal crashed down after finishing seventh in the men’s 10m Air Pistol final despite topping the qualification round on Saturday. However, it was heartbreak for Abhishek Verma, who ended up 17th in the qualification in the same event.
Earlier, in the morning Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela put on a disappointing show in the women’s 10m Air Rifle event to be ousted in the qualification round. In a field of champions, Saurabh finished 137.4. Javad Foroughi of Iran took gold while Damir Mikec of Serbia settled for silver. Pang Wei of China was third.
Making her Olympics debut, World No.1 Valvarian finished 16th with a score of 626.5, while the experienced Chandela finished far behind at 36th at the Asaka Range.
China’s Yang Qian (251.8) took gold — the first of the Tokyo Olympics – with Anastasiia Galashina (ROC) settling for silver accumulating 251.1. Nina Christen (230.6) of Switzerland had to contend with bronze.
24 July – #Shooting / Women's 10m Air Rifle
🥇 YANG Qian🇨🇳
🥈 Anastasiia Galashina
🥉 Nina Christen🇨🇭Congratulations to the first medalists of #Tokyo2020 #UnitedByEmotion | #StrongerTogether | @ISSF_Shooting
— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) July 24, 2021
Although Valvarian will have another chance to win a medal in the team event, this is the end of the road for Chandela. The Indian shooters got off to a good start. Even though Chandela faltered, the 21-year-old Valvarian tried to stay in the game with a strong performance in the third series, including a perfect 10.9.
Valvarian shot 104.3, 104.0, 106.0, 104.2, 103.5, and 104.5 for a total of 626.5 points, just two points shy of Galashina — the last shooter to make it to the final eight. It was a highly competitive field, and a minimum score of 105 is usually required to ensure a smooth passage into the final.
On the other hand, the 28-year-old Chandela had a series of 104.5, 102.5, 104.9, 104.2, 102.2, and 103.6 points for a total of 621.9 points. Meanwhile, Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway won the qualification round with an Olympic Qualification Record of 632.9.
