Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Anish Bhanwala and Shivam Shukla failed to reach the final of men’s 25m rapid fire air pistol event at the Asian Games on Saturday.
Bhanwala, 15, who had made history by winning a gold at the CWG in Gold Coast earlier this year, could not repeat Friday’s fine qualification performance on the second day of qualification. He eventually failed to qualify for the finals, finishing ninth overall with a score of 576 while Shukla ended 11th with 569.
The top six qualified for the finals where China’s Zhaonan Yao won the gold with a Games Record score of 34. Silver also went to China with Junmin Lin shooting 33 and bronze went to South Korea’s Kim Junhong, who shot 29.
Bhanwala, who is from Karnal, was in third spot after the qualification stage on Friday.
“I was under pressure yesterday but not today. I just shot badly. It can happen sometimes. I am disappointed but need to move on,” Bhanwala told PTI looking ahead with the World Championships beginning in Changwon on August 31.
“There were expectations but like I said, in shooting it is all about how you perform on the day. I could not do it today and I will try to do better at the Worlds,” added the teenager.
The first day of the men’s and women’s skeet qualification were also conducted on Saturday.
In the men’s Sheeraz Sheikh and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa shot identical individual scores of 72 out of 75, to be well placed to qualify for the finals. Among the women, Ganemat Shekhon was placed ninth and Rashmi Rathore 10th, both again logging identical scores of 68 out of 75. The leading score is 73, and the two Indian women will have to have really strong couple of rounds on Sunday to make it to the finals.
Another qualification session and the finals will be held on Saturday, the final day of the competition.