After Wednesday medal rush at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, India had a quiet day on Thursday with a lone gold in 10m air pistol team men the only medal coming from the shooting range.
Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal could not work up magic on their own, but put together, the trio bagged the team gold with a score of 1734, edging out hosts China by a point. Vietnam settled for bronze at 1730.
World No 9 Sarabjot was the best Indian on view as he qualified at the fifth spot with a score of 580. Arjun was the last name to qualify at eighth with 578. Shiva, who won gold in the mixed team at the Baku World Championships last month, had a disappointing finish at the 14th spot with 576.
Riding some good form this year courtesy gold at the Bhopal World Cup, Sarabjot went into the final hoping to step up but was disappointed, getting eliminated after 20 shots. Sarbajot’s second-last shot of 8.8 proved costly, and though he did shoot a 10.7, it was too late, finishing fourth with 199.0.
Arjun was the first to be eliminated at eighth place with 113.0.
The top spot went to Vietnam Huy Quang Pham, who won his first international gold with a score of 240.5 (580). Korea silver medallist Wonho Lee finished with 239.4 (581), and also stepped up after the bronze at the 2022 Cairo World Championship in 10m air pistol team.
For Uzbekistan Vladimir Svechnikov 219.9 (579), the bronze was his first individual medal in a multi-discipline event, his previous best being bronze in the team event at the 2022 Changwon World Cup.
Anant Jeet Singh Naruka could not reproduce the magic on the skeet range which saw him win silver in the individual event on Wednesday, and his 71 and Ganemat Sekhon 67 was not enough to take India to the medal round, the team finishing 7th with 138 in the mixed team event.
If Naruka was off-colour after his duel with Kuwait seasoned Abdullah Al-Rashidi in the final on Wednesday, the 60-year-old once again showed why he is a champion shooter by helping his country to top qualification. Partnering Eman Alshamaa (75), Al-Rashidi shot 74 for a team total of 149, a point better than the Kazakh pair of Eduard Yechshenko (74) and Assem Orynbay (74).
The tables got turned in the final as the Kazakhs upped their game to beat the fancied Kuwaitis 40-35 to lift gold.
It was a battle of the Middle East in the first bronze-medal with Qatar outgunning Bahrain 44-37. The other contest for bronze was much more engrossing with a tie between China and Korea (42 each) being decided in favour of the hosts via a shoot-off.