Asian Games 2018: All the round-up from shooting

The 18th Asian Games have reached their halfway point, which means some of the competitions are over while others are just commencing.

Over the first half of the Games, India saw a consistent flow of medals. Amongst those medals, were some surprising ones such as Wushu, Sepaktakraw, and Rowing. The three sports contributed with seven Bronze medals and a Gold, combined.

Amongst the medal winners, were some usual suspects as well. The weightlifting and tennis contingents won in their respective competitions. Elsewhere, Squash saw the Indian trio of Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal, and Joshna Chinappa win a Bronze medal each in the Singles competition.

Shooting was amongst those competitions, from which the Indian fans expected a medal. It's fair to say, that the Shooting contingent did deliver on those expectations. Overall, Nine of India's Thirty-One medals so far from Shooting, which included Two Gold, Four Silver, and Three Bronze medals.

We take a look at what transpired over Women's events first.

Women

Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan were one of the earliest participants at the eighteenth pan-Asian games. They started the competition on a disappointing note, however. Both the Women were competing in the Women's 10m Air Rifle. While Valarivan failed to qualify for the final, Chandela finished fifth. Nevertheless, Chandela did not return home empty-handed, but more on that later.

Anjum Moudgil and Gaayathri N were the two Indians in Women's 50m Rifle 3 positions. However, both of them failed to advance to the Final.

In Women's 10m Air Pistol, the duo of Manu Bhaker and Heena Sidhu entered the Final. The two had achieved podium finishes at the CWG. However, it was only Sidhu who took home a medal this time as she won the Bronze. Bhaker finished 5th.

Bhaker returned to take a place alongside Rahi Sarnobat in Women's 25m Pistol. However, the youngster was left frustrated yet again, as she finished 6th. Sarnobat, on the other hand, won the Gold medal.

There was more disappointment in Women's Trap and Women's Skeet event, as the women once again shot blanks.

In the Women's Double Trap Final, Shreyasi Singh and Varsha Varman finished 6th and 7th, respectively.

Men

We start the round-up with Men's 10m Air Pistol. Ravi Kumar and Deepak Kumar were in this one. While Ravi narrowly missed out on a medal as he finished fourth, Deepak won the Silver. The Indian shot a total of 247.7 to win the medal.

In Men's 50m Rifle 3 positions, Sanjeev Rajput brought back yet another Silver for India. His compatriot Akhil Sheoran did not advance from the qualifiers.

One of the two events which were on the Men's roster and not the Women's was 300m Standard Rifle 3 positions. Harjinder Kumar and Amith Kumar finished 4th and 5th in this one, missing out on a medal.

The only event to see two podium finishes was Men's 10m Air Pistol. Youngster Saurabh Chaudhary announced his arrival on the big stage, as he took home the Gold medal from this event. Abhishek Verma joined him on the podium, and proved his doubters wrong, by winning the Bronze.

Teenage sensation Anish Bhanwala and Shivam Shukla competed in the Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. Both of them, however, failed to qualify for the final.

In Men's Skeet, Sheeraj Sheikh and Angadwir Bajwa failed to make it into the final as well. There was success in Men's Trap, however, as Lakshay Sheoran won the Silver medal. Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who was also present in this one, finished 4th.

Finally, in Men's Double Trap, 15-year-old Shardul Vihaan won the Silver medal. Ankur Mittal did not advance to the final.

Mixed

There was one medal in Mixed Team events as well. Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela won the Bronze medal in 10m Air Rifle, finishing with a score of 429.9.

In 10m Air Pistol, however, Abhishek Verma and Manu Bhaker failed to make it to the final. On the other hand, Lakshay Sheoran and Shreyasi Singh did make it to the final of Mixed Trap. Nonetheless, they finished sixth.

There were a lot of disappointments in Shooting but the event still gave us plenty to cheer about. The contingent returns home with Nine medals.