Asian Games: Manu Bhaker falls short of medal in 10m air pistol, finishes fifth in final
Nagoya, Sep 23 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Double Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker suffered a heartbreak at the Asian Games 2026 as she fell short of a podium spot in the women’s 10m air pistol individual event, finishing fifth in the final here Wednesday.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Gaeun Choo bagged the gold with an Asian record and Games record score of 246.3, while China’s Yiyao Shen (241.3) and Ranxin Jiang (221.6) rounded off the podium with silver and bronze, respectively.
Manu, who entered the individual final after finishing third in qualification with a score of 579, which included 20 inner 10s, shot 181.1 in the eight-women final as India drew blank in the women’s 10m sir pistol event after missing the team medal by the barest of margins.
Manu will now shift her focus to the 25m pistol event, joining Esha and 2018 Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat.
The other Indians in the field failed to advance to the medal round after Esha finished 15th with 572 and Suruchi finished 26th with 568. As a result, the women’s team was an agonising end for the Indian trio Esha, Manu and Suruchi in the team event, as two inner-10s came between India and bronze medallists Vietnam.
India finished fourth in the team event with an aggregate score of 1719-44x while Vietnam bagged the bronze with 1719-46x. China took the gold with 1735-56x while South Korea bagged silver with 1730-55x.
Interestingly, in the 2023 edition, India won three medals in the 10m air pistol events. Moreover, Manu did not win an individual medal at Hangzhou and was looking to make amends but couldn’t manage to do so. In 2023 edition, she was part of the women’s 25m pistol team that won gold in Hangzhou, along with Rhythm Sangwan and Esha Singh.
Earlier in the day, the women’s skeet team of Razia Dhillon, Maheshwari Chauhan and Parinaaz Dhaliwal win a bronze medal in the women’s skeet team event after shooting a total of 331 in the qualification.
India won their first medal in shooting at Asian Games 2026 in the women’s 10m air rifle team event, with Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod claiming silver. Elavenil also clinched an individual silver in the same event.
The following day, Himanshu Dhillon and Rundrakksh Patil bagged silver in the men’s 10m air rifle team, followed by a silver and bronze finish by Himanshu and Rundrakksh in the individual event.
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