Shooters fail to find their mark

It turned out to be yet another tepid outing for India after young Elizabeth Susan Koshy finished fourth despite a rousing start in the women 50M Rifle 3 position in the Asia Olympic qualifying shooting competition at Dr Karni Singh Range on Sunday.

Koshy was the lone Indian to make it to the eight-woman 45-shot Final, after finishing sixth in the qualifying round with 580 points.  In the final, the 21-year-old gave a good account of herself in the kneeling series where she accumulated 151.8 points (49.5, 51.1, 51.2) after 15 shots. The Kerala shooter jumped into in the race for a bronze medal during the three prone series, which followed next, and swelled her scoring to 306.3 points after 30 shots.

She, however, faltered in the standing position, which incidentally happens to be her strong point. Koshy began her standing series by shooting a low score of 5.5 and could not pick up a steady rhythm. A 7.9 in her 33rd shot followed by an 8.9 further dented her cause. She was eliminated in the 43rd shot with the total score of 430.5 and missed the Olympic quota place by one place since the event had three on offer.

“My standing position is usually my strong point and I was confident of scoring good scores there. But I couldn’t make the required adjustment,” shrugged Koshy.

The gold was clinched by Singaporean Xiang Wei Jasmine Se, who was reeling at the fourth place following the prone series. She, however, shot consistently in the standing series to finish with 458.0 points. Iran’s Mahlagha Jambozorg won the silver with 455.4 points, while South Korea’s Kyerim Lee, despite leading the match at the end of both the kneeling and the prone series, had to settle for the bronze and the third and last Olympic slot available, with 443.5 points.

In the women’s 25M pistol event, none of the three Indians could qualify for the eight-woman final. Rahi Sarnobat finished 12th with a score of 575, Anisa Sayyed 17th with 572 and Annu Raj Singh 21st  with 570 after the two rounds of qualifying.

The event was dominated by South Korean shooters who swept all the three podium places. Koh Eun winning the gold medal, Minjung Kim the silver and Ji Hye Kim the bronze.