World number seven Double Trap
shooter Mohammad Asab finished on the podium but failed to capture the coveted Olympic quota place as Indian shooters endured a relatively disappointing fourth day of the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition here today.
After three successive quotas, the fourth day of the tournament proved to be a day of near misses for the Indian shooting squad.
Quota hopeful Asab had to settle for a bronze medal in the event thereby missing out on a Rio Olympics berth.
Upcoming talent Akhil Sheoran, in the men's 10m Air Rifle, made it to the biggest final of his nascent senior career and looked set to grab one of the two Rio quotas available but eventually finished fourth to miss out by one position.
In the men's Double Trap, Asab and Ankur Mittal qualified for the six-man semi-finals in the top two positions shooting an excellent 142 and 141 respectively.
Their performance can be gauged by the fact that Kuwait's double Olympic-medallist Fehaid Aldeehani shot 140 to qualify behind the two Indians.
In the semi-finals, Ankur started off on a wrong note but Asab looked on course to qualify for the gold medal match-up and bag one of the two quotas available. But a protest, which got rejected, and one inexplicable double miss meant that he missed out on the gold medal match and quota by one point ending with a score of 26.
UAE's Khaled Alkaabi shot 28 and Fehaid shot 27 to enter the gold medal match-up and claim the two Rio quotas available. In the bronze medal match Asab, who suffered a shoulder injury just before the competition that resulted him in not training for five days, found his bearings and defeated Korea's Hyun Woo Shin 26 to 24 to claim the bronze.
"I tried my best and I am very disappointed. I took a pain killer in the morning for my shoulder injury and the effects were starting to wear off. Due to my injury I could not train properly for the finals here and it could have affected the final result today," said a dejected Asab after the medal ceremony.
In the men's 10M Air Rifle where India already have a quota through Abhinav Bindra, Akhil, competing in his first big event as a senior, produced a creditable performance shooting a score of 620.1 in qualifying to make the final in 8th position.
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In the eight man final, all except Kazakhstan's Yuriy Yurkov were eligible for the two available quotas in the event.
Akhil was in contention for a bronze and a quota till the 13th shot out of 20 before Iran's Pourya Norouziyan pipped him on the 14th shot and held on. Akhil thus got eliminated in fourth position finishing a final round with a score of 163.
The gold in the event was claimed by Naoya Okada of Japan while Yurkov won the silver. Iran claimed the bronze. The two Rio quotas went to Japan and Iran.
Expressing his disappointment, Raninder Singh, President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said, "It happens in sport and we are happy that our shooters are shooting great scores in qualifying. We hope to build on the momentum gained in the event over the past four days and win more quotas over the last three days of competition. Having said that today's results, particularly in shotgun, were disappointing."
The day also saw the commencement of the qualification rounds of the women's 25M Pistol event. Annu Raj Singh was lying fourth with a score of 289 while Anisa Sayyed was 13th with 288 and Rahi Sarnobat in 21st position with a score of 285. They will be looking to win one of the three available Olympic quotas in the event tomorrow.
Tomorrow will also see the finals of the Women's 50M Rifle 3 Positions event which also has three Olympic quotas on offer with India's Lajja Gauswami and Elizabeth Susan Koshy as contenders.
