Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant failed to qualify for the finals of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on Saturday. They finished at the 15th and 33rd positions, respectively.
This loss meant that the Indian shooting team’s disastrous outing at the Summer Games continued as none of its participants except for Saurabh Chaudhary qualified for the finals. He entered the Tokyo Olympics on the back of some stunning performances and soaring expectations.
World Championship silver-medallist Moudgil finished with 1167 and 54 inner 10s, while the veteran Sawant scored 1154 over the three series of standing kneeling and prone at the Asaka Shooting Range.
Moudgil, who was inside the top-8 for a while, raised hopes before the final series after a good set of 40 shots, but she could not sustain that.
She had a good outing in kneeling and prone but gave it away in the standing, shooting 382.
Sawant could never recover from a poor kneeling round even though she had a good 394 in prone before managing 376 in standing.
Russian Olympic Committee’s Yulia Zykova finished with 1182, an Olympic qualification record.
The top eight shooters in the qualifications make the finals.
The other finalists are Sagen Maddalena of USA, Jolyn Beer of Germany, ROC’s Yulia Karimova, Andrea Arsovic of Serbia, Switzerland’s Nina Christen, Sloenia’s Ziva Dvorsak and Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway.
Sanjeev Rajput is now the only Indian shooter left in the fray at the Games.
Earlier on July 30, Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat crashed out of the 25m pistol qualifications (rapid fire stage) as both finished outside the top-8.
It means the pistol shooters will return home empty-handed for the second straight time at the Olympics.
Bhaker shot 290 in the rapid-fire stage of the qualifications for a total of 582, a day after scoring 290 in precision at the Akasa Shooting Range, while the more experienced Sarnobat managed 573 (287+286).
The field comprised 44 shooters in the qualifications.
