A disappointing end at Women's 25m pistol event

After the euphoria surrounding Gagan Narang’s bronze medal victory, it was time to turn to the women’s 25m Pistol event. While the hopes of a medal in this event were quite low, there were still expectations that Narang’s podium finish would spur the ladies into achieving more medals for the country. India was represented by Rahi Sarnobat and Annu Raj Singh in this event but they faced stiff competition from the likes of China’s Ying Chen, who won the gold in Beijing, and Lenka Maruskova of Czech Republic.

There were 2 stages in the qualifying round for this event. The first stage is the precision round. In this, the shooters would be firing a total of 30 shots in a series of 5 shots each. The target was a ring which is divided into 10 concentric circle with the smallest cricle of 50 mm diameter and worth 10 points. The second stage is the rapid fire round in which the target would be exposed for a duration of 3 seconds. The shooter would be allowed to shoot one shot per exposure.

In the first set of 20 shooters, Rahi started for India and her first few shots were right on target. Even though she wasn’t hitting the inner 10’s consistently, she was still getting 10 pointers. But as her competitors kept hitting the bulls-eye too, she seemed to have buckled under pressure. After 6 successive 10’s, she hit a couple of 9’s which dropped her place. Thereafter, it was always going to be a uphill task but she finished at 6th but the gap was too wide.

Annu followed up in the second set of 20 shooters, but she was never even in the reckoning for the top spots. She did not fare well in the Precision round nor could she redeem herself in the Rapid fire round. Even Rahi was unable to put together any kind of good form in the rapid fire round, which ended India’s interest in the event. In the end, Rahi finished at 19th while Annu could only manage a 30th place and neither could qualify for the finals.

As a result of this disappointment, further medal hopes turn firmly back to Gagan Narang and Ronjan Sodhi as they look to bring more glory for the nation. Let us wish them the very best of luck!