Shooting, Paris 2024 Olympics Highlights: Manu Bhaker makes women’s 10m air pistol final, Sarabjot loses out on a final place by one inner-10

We are done with shooting action for the day... After a series of heartbreaks through the day, Manu Bhaker eventually managed to bring joy to Indian sports fans as she became the only shooter to qualify for an event final on Saturday.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with a fresh blog to take you through the day’s action. The 10m air rifle men’s and women’s qualification and 10m air pistol men’s and women’s final are scheduled tomorrow.

(Picture Credits: Paris 2024 screengrab)

(Picture Credits: Paris 2024 screengrab)

(Picture Credits: Paris 2024 screengrab)

Bhaker, 3rd, qualifies for the final with a score of 580-27x. Rhythm finishes 15th with a score of 573-14x.

Hungarian Veronika Major tops the qualification with a score of 582-22x in 10m air pistol.

Rhythm shoots four 9s in a row to slip to 19th. Bhaker, fifth, drops four points in the fifth series.

A 96 in the fourth series by Bhaker, but she stays in the 3rd spot. Rhythm scores 96 in the same series. She is 15th.

Bhaker with a 98 in the third series to jump up to the 2nd spot. Rhythm shoots 97 to better her rank to 18th.

Bhaker drops three points in the second series to slip to the fourth place. Rhythm loses eight more points the second series to slide further to 26th.

Three 10s and a 9 to get things started in the second series for Bhaker. She is 4th on the leaderboard after the two Chinese shooters and Sevval Ilayda Tarhan of Turkey.

Bhaker and Rhythm come back strongly with two 10s. They are 4th and 7th on the leaderboard, respectively.

After dropping two points off the next three shots, both Bhaker and Rhythm have taken a break.

After five shots, Bhaker and Rhythm have dropped one point each.

Bhaker starts with a 9 followed by a 10. Rhythm yet to take her first shot.

Did you know? Jiang Ranxin of China holds both the Olympic and World Qualification Record in women’s 10m air pistol. She will be Manu Bhaker’s biggest challenge en route to the final.

Let’s take a quick look at the 10m air pistol women’s qualification rules. The athletes will have 15 minutes of sighting and preparation time before they will be allowed 75 minutes to take 60 shots. During sighting, the shooters can take as many shots as they want. The top eight shooters qualify for the final.

In about 15 minutes from now, Rhythm Sangwan and Manu Bhaker will take centrestage in 10m women’s air pistol qualification.

(Picture Credits: Paris 2024 screengrab)

I... I... I have no words...

Sarabjot tied on 577 with Germany’s Robin Walter will have to make way because the latter has hit one inner-10 more than the Indian. ONE! ONE INNER-10 OUT OF 60 SHOTS!

Cheema exits the 10m air pistol qualification round with a score of 574-17x. He is 18th.

Havig dropped seven points in the fifth series, only a perfect series might save Sarabjot now.

With a 93 off the penultimate series, Cheema is all set to exit the qualification round without making the final.

Sarabjot, now 9th, finds himself in a precarious position, having shot three 9s and an 8 in the fifth series.

10, 8, 9, 10, 8 - A disappointing show from Cheema in the fifth series thus far

A perfect 100 for Sarabjot, who moves to the third place now. Absolutely mind-boggling show this from the 22-year-old!

Cheema and Sarabjot find themselves next to each other. Cheema shoots a 7 and quite understandably takes a break.

A 96 in the third series and Sarabjot finds himself in the 17th position. We are only halfway through and Sarabjot still has some time to make the top 8.

Unreal shooting from Cheema! He has shot 10 10s off his last 10 shots. He is up to fourth now. Meanwhile. Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec has just shot a 100 in his third series.

Two 10s in the third series takes Cheema to 8th! Game on...

Five perfect 10s off the last five shots in the second series takes Cheema’s score to 97. He stays 10th.

Four 10s on the trot from Sarabjot to come up to 19th. Cheema shoots four 10s to enter top 10.

Sarabjot shoots another 9 at the very start of the second series to slip to third last. Cheema shoots three straight 10s after starting the second series with a 9. He is placed 17th.

Cheema eventually drops four points in his first series to come up to 12th. Sarabjot drops six to stay 28th.

Guess we spoke too early... Cheema slips to 28th with a 9 and 8. Sarabjot has four 9s off his first seven shots. Not again!

Cheema scoring at an impressive rate of 9.8. Sarabjot finds himself in the bottom half of the standings with 9.5.

Sarabjot starts with an inner-10 followed by a 9. Cheema gets things rolling with an inner-10.

Let’s take a quick look at the 10m air pistol men’s qualification rules. The athletes will have 15 minutes of sighting and preparation time before they will be allowed 75 minutes to take 60 shots. During sighting, the shooters can take as many shots as they want. The top eight shooters qualify for the final.

The 10m air pistol men’s qualification starts at 2pm IST. Will they be able to bring some joy to the Indian shooting fans?

(Picture Credits: Paris 2024 screengrab)

China (632.2), Korea (631.4), Kazakhstan (630.8), and Germany (629.7) make the 10m air rifle mixed team medal matches. India 1 finishes 12th (626.3) and India 2 (628.7) 6th.

Both Indian teams shown the exit door as Ramita and Babuta fall 1.0 point short of the medal matches’ cut-off. This is going to hurt!

Too early, but feels like Tokyo all over again...

With three shots remaining, India 2 stands fifth. This is way too close... Ramita and Babuta may just enter the medal matches!

A 9.9 from Sandeep in the fifth shot of the third series. Argh, things looking bleak for India 1 here. 16th.

Meanwhile the other team has had quite the recovery. A couple of 10.5-plus shots from Elavenil and Sandeep take them to 12th.

10.2, 10.7, 10.3, 10.1 for Ramita in the second series. 10.5, 10.6, 10.5, 10.9 for Babuta. This has been an incredible start for Babuta in the second relay. The combined score takes them into the top 8. Unlike the individual rounds though, that won’t ensure the side an entry into the medal match. They have to get to the top four, a slot which is currently dominated by the Chinese, Korean, French and Kazakh teams.

Ramita finishes the first series with a score of 104.6 and Babuta has 104.1. They are there and there about in the top 15. Both the Chinese teams and Korea 1 make the top 3.

Arjun and Ramita, who hadn’t had the greatest of starts, are slowly climbing the ladder! They are 20th now with a combined score of 124.8 after the first six shots.

Three 10.2s and a 10.1 for the Elavenil-Sandeep pair in their last two shots. They have slipped to 21st!

A 10.5 and 10.7 for Elavenil to start her second Olympic stint. Not bad. Not bad at all! India 1 is presently third on the leaderboard.

Sandeep Singh starts with a 10.8! That would take some pressure off the Armyman, who had been at the centre of a few controversies after the Olympic Selection Trials. Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, former world champion, had filed an appeal questioning Sandeep’s selection.

India holds the qualification world record in this event - 635.8. China’s 633.2 (Tokyo 2020) is the qualification Olympic record.

Ramita and Babuta (India 2) are taking up firing points 4 and 5. Elavenil and Sandeep (India 1) have been assigned lanes 24 and 25. A total of 28 pairs are set to participate.

Let’s take a quick look at the rules. Members of each team will occupy the starting lane next to each other at the range. The athletes will be summoned to the starting line 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time, which is 12:15pm in this case. They will have 10 minutes for sighters. Each member of the side will shoot 30 shots in as many minutes. Teammates can fire independently of their partner. The top 4 teams will make the medal matches. 1 and 2 play for gold, 3 and 4 will face-off in the bronze medal match.

We are set to start off the first day of the Olympics with shooting, which starts with the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Qualification at 12:30pm IST. Sandeep Singh-Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta-Ramita Jindal will form the two Indian teams.

While you wait for the action to begin at the range, take a look at the list of Indians who are set to be in action at the Paris Olympics today.

Paris 2024 Olympics: Indians in action today — July 27 schedule, full list of events, venues, timings in IST, live streaming info

Paris 2024 Olympics, July 27: Who are the Indians who will be in action today?

Lock ‘n load! It’s almost time to climb aboard the hype train to Châteauroux, where 21 Indian shooters will take on the mission of going up against 321 of the world’s best to claim the ultimate prize — an Olympic medal.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announcing the squad way ahead of July 8 — the Paris 2024 entry deadline — felt like the calm before the storm. The shooters have had an acclimatisation and a hard-training camp at Volmerange-Les-Mines, followed by a two-week break while waiting for Judgement Day.

India has never had more shooters representing the country at the Olympics. Tokyo 2020 saw a previous best of 15. This time, among the 81 participating nations and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) Refugee Team, India will send the most shooters to France, tying with China, followed by the Republic of Korea, which has 16.

It is mostly a new-look squad except for familiar faces in pistol star Manu Bhaker and rifle wielders Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan. Having waded through the choppy waters of Tokyo, they will be up and running soon for a second shot at glory.

While those who have already performed on the biggest stage would believe that past experience will help them fare better this time, the debutants may be thankful for not having to carry any baggage from previous editions.

Let’s do a quick recap. After returning empty-handed from Tokyo, Indian shooters experienced a curious mix of highs and lows in the subsequent years. Amid developments like numerous rule changes and overhauls in the coaching set-up, several prominent names such as Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Apurvi Chandela, and Rahi Sarnobat faded from scorecards for different reasons. A change of guard brought newcomers like Sift Kaur Samra and Sarabjot Singh to the forefront. Others, like Bhaker, entered recovery mode, deeply affected by the media scrutiny. However, she appears to have bounced back just in time.

One of the many factors that will work in favour of the Indians this time is the absence of Russia from the roster owing to the strict qualification restrictions in place after the latter invaded Ukraine.

Although the IOC stated that, as of July 13, 15 AINs (Athlètes Individuels Neutres/Individual Neutral Athletes) with Russian passports had qualified for the Summer Games in Paris (with a maximum of 55 eligible to make it), none of them happens to be shooters.

READ THE FULL PREVIEW BY SANTADEEP DEY HERE.