Indian shooter Jitu Rai could not create history as the shooter failed to qualify for the final round of the men’s 50m pistol event after narrowingly missing out as he finished 12th in the qualification round at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio. The shooter obtained a tally of 554 points from his six series of shots and was left disappointed. Fellow shooter Prakash Nanjappa could also not manage to qualify as his awful start to the qualification round proved to be the difference between a top-8 finish and his 25th rank. He could only manage a total of 547 points from the available 600 points.
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India’s best bet in shooting, Jitu Rai, shot a 10-pointer with his first shot and started his first series with 92 points which made him the 14th ranked shooter in the list. In his second series, the shooter started to concentrate on hitting the bull’s eye and it resulted in him getting 95 points out of the available 100 points which took him to 5th in the standings. The 28-year old could only obtain 90 points in his third series of 10 shots as he dropped to 12th in the table.
Going into the fourth series, it was important for Jitu to get his position in the top-8 shooters as a decline could have seen him getting eliminated. The shooter did not disappoint as he got 94 points from his fourth series which got him to the 7th spot. It had not been an ominous performance from the shooter and he continued to rally with 95 points in his fifth series as he was ranked 5th in the table. But as fate would have it, the last series saw the shooter drop drastically in the points table and finished outside the top 8. Jitu finished his final series with 554 points which finished him at the 12th position in the points table. One of the main reasons for his drop in the rankings was that he had very less time to fire his remaining three shots which were very crucial. Hence, the shooter was forced to take his shots hurriedly which resulted in only 88 points in his last series.
On the other hand, Prakash Nanjappa started off the event awfully as he got only 31 points from his first four shots. This start meant that the 40-year old shooter finished his first series with 85 points as he occupied the last spot (41st) in the points table. His second series could not be much fruitful either as he only obtained a total of 90 points which did not see a change in his position in the points table. Nanjappa continued to fight with 91 points in his third series getting him to the 35th spot but chances of qualification looked bleak for the Indian.
He managed 93 points from his fourth series which made him the 34th shooter in the table and it became obvious that the shooter will not be advancing to the next round. But Nanjappa showed strong character to get 95 and 93 points from his fifth and sixth series in the qualification round which finished him at the 25th spot, meaning that one more Indian shooter had failed to deliver on the biggest stage.
The round saw China’s Pang Wei and South Korea’s Jin Jong-oh dominating proceedings with scores of 565 and 567 points respectively as they finished inside the top-8 shooters. Here is the full list of shooters who have qualified for the final round which takes place at 8:30pm IST:
