Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary got off to a great start in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The pair finished first in the first round of qualification with a combined score of 582.

However, in qualification round two, the Indian shooting duo finished seventh with a total accumulated score of 380. While Manu shot (92+94) for a combined score of 186, Saurabh shot (96+98) for a total score of 194.

Now, the top two teams will go into the gold medal match. The teams which finish third and fourth will play for the bronze medal.

The formidable pair of Chaudhary and Bhaker was fancying their chances after a terrific run in recent years, during which they dominated almost all major competitions.

Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal were the other Indian team participating in the event. They could not get past the first round of qualifying and finished 17th with a combined score of 564.

In the first qualification round, there were three series of 10 shots for each team member. In the second round of qualification, members of the top eight pairs of the first round will shoot two series of 10 shots. They will get a total of 20 minutes to take these shots.

In the gold and bronze medal matches, the team with the higher combined score of single shots fired by each team member on command gets two points with one point awarded for a tie. The first team to reach 16 points with a difference of two, wins.

Later on Tuesday, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan will represent India in the 10m mixed rifle team event with Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil being the other team.

The 10m mixed rifle event will see participation from 29 pairs with the biggest challenge expected to come from Hungary, Russia, USA, China and Germany.