Nagoya, Sep 24 India’s shooting struggles at the Asian Games deepened on Thursday as the men’s 10m air pistol team, which is traditionally one of the country’s strongest disciplines, drew a blank here.
Kamaljeet, Aakash Bhardwaj and Kedarling Uchaganve all missed the eight-shooter final, leaving India empty-handed in an event in which the nation was expected to challenge for a medal.
Kamaljeet came agonisingly close, finishing ninth with 580 — just one point short of the qualification mark — while Bhardwaj shot 579 to finish 11th. Kedarling endured a nightmare outing, finishing 35th with 568.
India’s combined score of 1727 was enough for fourth place, but Japan, who had trailed for much of the competition, seized their opportunity when Kedarling’s scores began to dip sharply and surged into the bronze-medal position with 1730.
It was another disappointing day for an Indian contingent that has now completed five days of shooting without a gold medal — an unusual drought for the Asian powerhouse even though four silver and three bronze medals have been secured by it.
The result came a day after India’s star-studded women’s 10m air pistol team of double Olympic-medallist Manu Bhaker and World Cup gold-medallists Esha Singh and Suruchi Singh also failed to make the final.
The back-to-back disappointments have dealt a significant blow to India’s hopes of matching its record haul of 22 shooting medals, including seven gold, at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
For the Indian shooting fans watching from the stands, Thursday’s performance only added to the uncomfortable question that has been hanging over the contingent: what is going wrong?
The men’s 10m air pistol qualification offered little comfort. Kamaljeet stayed in contention until the closing stages but could not find the extra point needed to break into the final.
Bhardwaj, too, remained within touching distance but could not make the cut.
Kedarling’s problems, however, were far more pronounced.
The Indian Army shooter struggled almost from the start, repeatedly dropping points and finding very few of the high scores needed to remain competitive.
As his performance deteriorated, he began changing the settings of his pistol in search of a solution, leaving Indian coaches in the spectator area visibly concerned.
High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp, meanwhile, paced around the stands as Kedarling tried to arrest his slide. However, the adjustments did little to change the course of his competition.
Kedarling continued to fire erratically, with too many nines and too few high scores. As the competition entered its closing stages, India’s hopes of salvaging a team bronze were already hanging by a thread.
Then came an extraordinary twist. With the team medal positions finely poised, members of the Japanese coaching staff gathered behind Kedarling in the spectator area, watching his final shots and hoping the Indian shooter would drop enough points to allow their team to move into bronze-medal position.
The under-pressure Kedarling faltered.
An eight in his final sequence of 10 shots effectively ended India’s hopes and opened the door for Japan. The Japanese coaches left the area visibly pleased, knowing that Kedarling’s late lapse had helped their team move into medal position.
Japan finished third with 1730, three points ahead of India.
China took the team gold with 1743, while Indonesia won silver after also shooting 1743. China prevailed on the inner-10 count, recording 70 shots closer to the centre of the target compared to Indonesia’s 57.
At the top of the individual qualification standings, Indonesia’s Muhamad Iqbal Raja Prabovo produced one of the day’s standout performances, firing an impressive 589. He finished six points clear of China’s second-placed shooter, who shot 583.
For India, the numbers told a very different story.
Kedarling left the range in a huff, while the Indian camp was left to absorb another disappointing result.
Beauchamp, who oversees India’s data-driven performance analysis — including granular tracking of shooters, video recordings and physiological data — besides sport-science integration, mental regulation and broader system building, declined to analyse the team’s performance immediately.
He said he would speak only after the shooting competitions at the Asian Games are over.
“I cannot speak right now. I will only talk after India’s competition at the Games are over,” he said.
(PTI News)
