Tokyo Olympics 2020 Shooting Events Highlights: Manu Bhaker fifth, Rahi Sarnobat 25th in 25m pistol precision

Today's Shooting Olympic Events Live Updates, Highlights: Indian shooters Rani Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker are competing in 25m pistol women's qualification.

Manu Bhaker of Team India at the Asaka Shooting Range on Sunday.

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Welcome to the highlights of India's shooting events on Competition Day 6 at Tokyo 2020. This was Santadeep Dey taking you through all the action as it unfolded at the Asaka Shooting Range.

HIGHLIGHTS

WOMEN'S 25M PISTOL - PRECISION STAGE

The next stage in women's 25m sports pistol - Rapid begins at 9 AM local time (5:30 AM IST) tomorrow. The final is scheduled to commence at 2 PM local time (10:30 AM IST).

RELAY 4/4 - At the end of the fourth relay, Manu remains 5th. Rahi, on the other hand, is 25th in a field of 44.

- Three 9s and an 8 sees Chia Chen lose her place among the top 5. None of the Relay 4 shooters are presently in the Top 10.

- Belarus' Viktoria Chaika off to a belter, registering three inner-10s and two 10s off the first five shots. Five more shots later, Chaika has gone out of the top 10, with a 9 followed by an 8. Chinese Taipei's Tien Chia Chen leads the Relay 4 shooters with a 98.

RELAY 3/4

• Manu (Series 3): 292-9x [10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10] Manu comes back strongly to score five 10s off her last five shots. After the third relay, she is comfortably seated on the 5th spot. Arunovic, Korakaki, Antoaneta Kostadinova (BUL) and Batsarashkina are ahead of her, as things stand. Rahi is 18th.
• Manu (Series 2): 194-7x [10, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10] Manu drops three points again in this series to stay on the 9th spot. Korakaki scores a perfect 100 to move top!
• Manu (Series 1): 97-2x [10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 10, 9, 10, 10, 10] Manu fires two consecutive 9s to slip down to the 16th place after the first five shots. She, however, climbs back up into the top 10 with four 10s off the next five. Greece's Anna Korakaki, who was off to a flyer with a 50, drops two points off the next five shots.

RELAY 2/4

- This is definitely Vitalina Batsarashkina's Olympics! A gold in 10m air pistol, silver in 10m air pistol mixed team and now a 100 to propel her to the second spot after Arunovic at the end of the second relay. Her final score is 292 (13x).

- Karsch leads the Relay 2 batch with a 97 in the second series of 10 shots. Kwak Junghye of the Republic of Korea registers a 98 to jump into third.

- Kiejko finishes Series 1 in the second relay with a 99. She is followed by Monika Karsch of Germany and Wu.

- Olfa Charni (TUN), Wu Chia-Ying (TPE), Lynda Kiejko (CAN) register a total of 49s in the first five shots to lead Relay 2.

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RELAY 1/4

• Rahi (Series 3): 287-12x [10, 10, 10, 9, 8, 9, 9, 10, 9, 10] Rahi finishes 7th after the first batch of 10 shooters are done with the precision stage. She'll have to do exceptionally well in the Rapid stage tomorrow for a fighting chance to be in the final. Arunovic finishes with 296-11x; average shot score - 9.867.
• Rahi (Series 2): 193-8x [10, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10, 10, 9, 10, 9] Rahi starts off 'Series 2' with 10s again. Four of them, on this occasion, before the first 9 slips in. She finishes 6th among the first batch of 10 shooters. Meanwhile, the scorecard reads 197-8x for Arunovic. She is still #1.
   
• Rahi (Series 1): 96-2x [10, 10, 10, 9, 10, 10, 9, 9, 10, 9] Rahi is off to a brilliant start with three back-to-back 10s (the first of those an inner-10). She, however, ends up shooting three 9s off her last five shots. Serbia's Zorana Arunovic leads the first batch of 10 markswomen with a 'perfect score' (4x) after 10 shots.

- India shooters Manu Bhaker (Bib No. 1471) and Rahi Sarnobat (Bib No. 1475) will start from firing points 23 and 33, respectively.

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RULES OF WOMEN'S 25M PISTOL QUALIFICATION

The participants are asked to shoot from a distance of 25m (27.34 yards) using a 5.6 millimeters (0.22 inches) caliber pistol with a maximum weight of 1.4 kilograms.

The center of the target (total diameter-500 mm) is positioned at 1.4 meters above the floor.

During the qualification round, every athlete has to fire 60 shots, divided in two stages of 30 shots each: a  Precision Stage  and Rapid Fire Stage .

In Precision, athletes have to fire six five-shot series within five minutes. In Rapid Fire, green lights are turned on for 3 seconds per shot, while the red lights between consecutive greens last for 7 seconds.

The maximum score per shot is 10 points.

PREVIEW

Its morale hit after a series of poor results and revelation of factionalism among coaches, India's shooting contingent would be looking towards the seasoned Rahi Sarnobat for a reboot while hoping that Manu Bhaker rediscovers her form in the women's 25m pistol event of the Olympics today.

The Indian shooters, tipped to be country's best medal bet before the Olympics, endured yet another forgettable outing on Tuesday when they crashed out in the qualifying stages of the mixed team events in both pistol and rifle.

The duo of Saurabh Chaudhary and Bhaker caved in under pressure and failed to qualify for the final of the 10m air pistol mixed team event.

Thy finished seventh in Qualification 2 after topping the first phase with 582 at the Asaka Range. Both the 19-year-olds then lost the plot completely when the top eight teams battled it out in the second phase.

The other Indian team in the event, Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal, failed to clear Qualification 1 and finished in 17th place, having totalled 564 across six series (three each for one member).

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If that was not enough, the rifle duo of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished 12th with a total of 626.5 across three series each, while Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar ended 18th out of 29 pairs with an aggregate score of 623.8 later in the day.

This was after all the pistol and rifle shooters put up disappointing performances in their respective individual events earlier in the Games.

Adding to the chaos was federation president Raninder Singh's promise of a coaching staff overhaul after the Games.

Also not helping their cause are revelations that pistol coaches of the team were not in best of terms, which might have ended up having a bearing on the shooters' performance as well.

Bhaker will get one last chance to leave her mark at the Games on Thursday after she endured a major weapon malfunction leading to a heartbreaking exit from the women's 10 air pistol event.

Appearing in her maiden Olympics, the teenager finished a creditable 12th, despite losing nearly 20 minutes during the qualifications after the cocking lever in her pistol broke down, forcing her to go to a designated area for getting it fixed.

Thursday could well turn out to be a new beginning for Bhaker and Indian shooting, provided she and Sarnobat can handle the pressure.

Sarnobat, fresh from an ISSF World Cup stage gold in Osijek, Croatia, leading up to the Games and Bhaker will have to go through two days of qualification on Thursday and Friday, before the top eight are separated after the second rapid fire round.

The 44-strong women's sport Pistol field on day six of the Olympic Shooting competition, closely resembles the Air Pistol competition of day two and will have all the finalists of that event, barring the Chinese who have changed personnel.

In reigning Asian Games champion Sarnobat, India will have an experienced shooter in the ranks.

The 15-member Indian shooting contingent has six more starts in the Games and the country's shooters will be desperate to break the medal jinx in the coming events to silence their critics.

- Press Trust of India

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

• When will the Indian shooters play at the Tokyo Olympics? Two of the 15 Indian shooters -- Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat -- will compete on July 29.
• At what time will the Indian shooters be in action? The shooting event will start today at 5:30 AM IST (9 AM local time).
• Where to watch Indian events at Tokyo Olympics? The Sony Sports Network will broadcast the Tokyo Olympics live in India. Sony TEN 3 HD/SD will telecast events with Hindi commentary while Sony TEN 1 HD/SD and Sony TEN 2 HD/SD will have English commentary. Live streaming of the events will be available on the SonyLIV and JioTV apps.