Shooting, Paris 2024 Olympics Highlights, July 29: Arjun Babuta 4th in 10m air rifle final, Manu Bhaker-Sarabjot qualify for bronze medal match

The shooting action has concluded for the day. Tomorrow’s events include trap for both men and women and more importantly, a bronze medal match for 10m air pistol which will have Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh in action.

With a 21 in the third round, Tondaiman is now 30th in a field of 30 shooters.

A battle for the ages. The World Record Holder betters his own mark with a 252.2. Lindgren shoots a 10.3 and 10.6 but that wouldn’t be enough.

It’s a bronze for Maricic after shooting a 9.9 off his last attempt. He was 0.5 away from Lindgren.

Babuta finishes 4th after giving in to the pressure and registering a 9.5 off his last shot. That would hurt. That would hurt for years to come. He closes his eyes to soak in what has just transpired and walks off gingerly after putting his rifle in safety mode. The difference with the present 3rd-placed athlete is 0.9.

A 10.5 from Babuta. A 10.4 from Lihao. It’s all happening here in Châteauroux! The difference is 1.9 now. A fair bit. His second shot, a 10.1, sees Babuta slip to 4th. Sollazzo is fifth. 187.4.

A 10.9 from Lihao. Pressure, what’s that? A 10.2 from Babuta. Victor Lindgren has moved up to second place after the first shot with a 10.8. A 10.7 from Babuta and Lihao. The Indian is back to second. Maricic is third with a 10.9. Gorsa, competing for podium moments back, has been eliminated with a total score of 165.6.

A 9.9 from Babuta... Ouch! The nerves are kicking in. A 10.8 from Lihao. Petar Gorsa, a Frenchman, is breathing down Babuta’s neck. The difference is 0.1 points. Danilo Dennis Sollazzo and Choe in the danger zone. Two 10.5s from Sollazzo will have him breathing a sigh of relief. Choe leaves the lane, seventh.

10.6 and 10.8 for Babuta. PanAm star Marcelo Julian Gutierrez and Choe Daehan in the danger zone. The Argentine exits with 122.8. The gap between No. 1 Lihao and No. 2 Babuta is 0.1 now! 0.1!

Babuta gets going with a 10.7 again. With that he will jump up to the third place. A 10.5 now takes him to the 2nd spot. A 10.4, this is excellent stuff. He is 0.7 away from leader Lihao after three shots. The gap reduces to 0.5 after the fourth shot. The difference goes up to 0.8 at the end of the competition series. Maricic creeps up to second unnoticed with a 10.8 off his last shot.

Babuta starts with a 10.7. He is setting the pace for now. He follows it up with a 10.2. As was expected, Lihao takes the lead with a 10.6 followed by two 10.8s. Babuta takes the fourth place with a 10.5. The first series is done. Babuta notches up 52.4. Lihao has 53.4.

The announcer’s call for Babuta is greeted with loud cheers. Babuta acknowledges the crowd with a wave and smile before closing his eyes.

The sighting time is over! Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Sheng Lihao, who is playing this final, holds the World Record (254.5). William Shaner (251.6) of USA holds the Olympic record.

Time for some sighters ahead of the big final.

The start positions in a Final will be assigned according to a shooter’s rank in the qualification round. The athletes should report to the Jury in the Finals Range Preparation Area at least 30 minutes before the scheduled start. Scores do not carry forward from qualification. There will be six minutes for sighting and preparation. In the first and second competition stages, finalists have 250 seconds to fire 5 shots. This sequence will continue until 24 shots are fired (two five-shot series and 14 single shots). The first elimination takes place after 12 shots, following which there will be an exit after every two shots until we get the top three, who will be named medallists.

A 25/25 for Tondaiman. His total score stands at 47 now.

Arjun Babuta will be vying for a medal in the men’s 10m air rifle final at 3:30pm IST.

Tondaiman misses three clay pigeons to drop to 28th in the first round in a field of 30 shooters.

(Picture credit: Paris 2024)

A 9.9 for leader Ban Hyojin. That, however, won’t affect the rankings because of the initial difference of 1.3. A 9.6 for Hyojin... IT’S A SHOOT-OFF! Oh, what a thriller this is turning out to be. The fear of Chinese shooters is as real as it gets. Time for the one shot which determines the winner. A 10.3 for Yuting. That’s average as per her standards. A 10.4 for Hyojin. She takes the gold by a 0.1 margin and quite understandably the shooter has been reduced to tears. Both shooters have equalled Yang Qian’s Olympic Record from Tokyo 2020.

A huge difference of 1.9 separates Audrey Gogniat (4th) and Yuting (3rd). Despite shooting two back-to-back 10.6s and Yuting getting a 9.6, Gogniat will have to settle for bronze. The huge points cushion has just guaranteed at least a silver for China!

Let’s take a look at how the Indians fared in 10m air pistol mixed team.

(Picture credit: Paris 2024)

We have news from the 10m air pistol hall, where India 1 (Bhaker-Sarabjot) have qualified for the bronze medal match with a score of 580-20x. They will face Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho of Korea. The other Indian team of Rhythm and Cheema exit after finishing 10th (576-14x).

Maddalena hits a 10.4. Ramita with a 10.2. The Kazakh, Alexandra Le, drops to 7th with a 9.7. Ramita and Muller to have a shoot-off after getting tied at 145.3. A 10.8 FROM MULLER! Unreal hitting from the home favourite under unreal pressure. Ramita exits.

Ramita is in the danger zone, fighting a possible elimination with Duestad. She makes the jump with a 10.4 followed by a 10.5. Duestad exits, 8th. Ramita goes 6th, pushing Sagen Maddalena to 7th.

Five more shots are out of the way. Yuting continues her dominance. After 10 shots, her score reads 105.5. Ramita drops straight to 7th from 3rd after hitting a 9.7. This might come back to hurt Ramita.

After the first five-shot series, Ramita is slotted into the fourth place (10.3, 10.2, 10.6, 10.9, 10.5). A perfect shot at this stage of the match is truly commendable. Huan Yuting of China leads the pack with 53.0

Ramita starts off with a 10.3 followed by a 10.2. She gets a fifth place for starters.

Time to turn our attention to the women’s 10m air rifle final where Ramita will be fighting for a medal. The introductions are over. Ramita’s expression is difficult to read as the announcer reads out her name and credentials. She wears a determined look and unlike Bhaker there is hardly a smile of acknowledgement on her lips. Abhinav Bindra marks the ceremonial start of the final.

The start positions in a Final will be assigned according to a shooter’s rank in the qualification round. The athletes should report to the Jury in the Finals Range Preparation Area at least 30 minutes before the scheduled start. Scores do not carry forward from qualification. There will be six minutes for sighting and preparation. In the first and second competition stages, finalists have 250 seconds to fire 5 shots. This sequence will continue until 24 shots are fired (two five-shot series and 14 single shots). The first elimination takes place after 12 shots, following which there will be an exit after every two shots until we get the top three, who will be named medallists.

Manu rides the medal high to drop a single point off her first five shots on target. Sarabjot shoots two 9s in his first five.

Rhythm (India 2) is off to a brilliant start with three straight 10s. Her partner Cheema gets two 10s and a 9.

The Qualification World Record score belongs to China (June 2024) and India (June 2021) - 587. The Qualification Olympic Record of 582 from Tokyo 2020 belongs to India. 

We are almost at the very end of the sighting and preparation time. The Indian shooters are occupying firing points 21, 22, 30 and 31. Here are the bib numbers: Bhaker: 1431, Sarabjot: 1449, Rhythm: 1438 and Cheema: 1444.

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 12:30pm 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 four teams will make the medal matches. 1 and 2 play for gold, 3 and 4 will face-off in the bronze medal match.

The live telecast of the Paris Olympics will be available on Sports18 while the live streaming will be available on JioCinema in India from July 26 to August 11. Only the finals of the shooting events will be televised.

12:45 - Shooting - 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Qualification - India 1 (Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh), India 2 (Rhythm Sangwan, Arjun Singh Cheema)

13:00 - Shooting - Trap Men’s Qualification Day 1 - Prithviraj Tondaiman

13:00 - Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Women’s Final - Ramita Jindal

15:30 - Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Men’s Final - Arjun Babuta

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, Day 3: Indians in action today — July 29 schedule, full list of events, venues, timings in IST, live streaming info

On July 29, Indian athletes will be in action across multiple disciplines such as badminton, shooting, hockey, archery and table tennis.

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.