India’s medal hopes from the shooting department at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games were given a boost after pistol shooter Jitu Rai qualified for the final round of the men’s 10m air pistol event held at the National Shooting Range in Deodoro. However, compatriot Gurpreet Singh was unable to qualify for the final round as he finished at the 20th spot with a tally of 576 points out of 600.
India started their bid to win a medal in shooting with hopes riding high on world number three Jitu Rai’s shoulders. But the 25-year-old shooter was going slowly about his shooting throughout the event, constantly taking his time to fire his shots.
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The shooter managed to score 96 points in the first series and followed it up with another 96 points in his second series. He was not going to back down and tried his best to get into the top eight with 98 and 96 points in his third and fourth series. The shooter finally made it to the top-8 as he finished the fifth and sixth series with 96 and 98 points respectively. He finished in 6th spot with a tally of 580 points.
Tough luck for Gurpreet
On the other hand, Gurpreet Singh showed some nerves in the beginning and shot a meagre 94 points in his first series. The 29-year-old shooter went on to shoot 96 points in his second series, finishing the third and fourth series with 93 and an impressive 99 points respectively – climbing into the top 24 shooters.
Singh continued to make his way upwards and scored another 99 points in his fifth series lagging behind at 21st spot but improving his position. But the shooter could not finish well and went on to finish with 95 points in his 6th series to have a tally of 576 points.
China’s Wei Pang was the stand-out performer in the qualification as he shot 97, 98, 99, 98, 99 and 99 points to finish with an impressive tally of 590 points. Whereas, defending champion Jin Jong-Oh started the event slowly but climbed up the ladder as the event progressed. His scores read an impressive – 97, 94, 98, 100, 96 and 99 points from his six series of 10 shots.
The top eight shooters from the qualification round advanced to the final round which will be taking place at midnight according to Indian Standard Time. Here is the complete list of the eight shooters who have managed to get through to the final round of the event:
1) Pang Wei (China) – 590 points
2) Jin Jong-Oh (South Korea) – 584 points
3) Juraj Tuzinsky (Slovakia) – 582 points
4) Xuan Vinh Hoang (Vietnam) – 581 points
5) Giordano Guiseppe (Italy) – 580 points
6) Jitu Rai (India) – 580 points
7) Felipe Almeida Wu (Brazil) – 580 points
8) Vladimir Gontcharov (Russia) – 580 points
