"Unreal choke" - Fans react as Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala fall out of top six in last round of qualification in Paris Olympics

Indian pistol shooters Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala missed out on their chance to make it to the final after poor last-round shots in the 25m rapid fire pistol men’s qualification round in the Paris Olympics 2024.

After the conclusion of Stage 1, both Indian shooters were in comfortable positions. While Sidhu stood at the fifth rank with a total of 293 - 14x, Bhanwala finished at the seventh rank with 293 - 11x. However, they choked in the crucial dying moments of the qualification round.

Dejected Indian fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent out their frustration of Indian athletes failing to keep up their composure in the crucial moments. Let’s take a look at some of the reactions from the Indian fans.

“Unreal choke from Vijayveer Sidhu...From Shooting 98 98 97 100 98 in previous series just to shoot a poor 92 when 95 at worst needed. Indian Athletes cannot keep composure till the end it seems,” a user wrote on X.

“Vijayveer choked in the last set with 2 8s and 9s , while he shot mostly 10s till this last round. Literally fed up of Indian atheletes choking in critical junctures. We know it’s easy to pass comments, but why??” another user questioned.

“How badly Vijayveer choked? One 8 is understandable but 3 in last round with two 9s. Ahh! Maybe this never meant to be. Sad!” another tweet read.

Here are other reactions:

“Vijayveer Sidhu,Anish Bhanwala both fails to qualify for the finals. Both were going strong until a poor last series pushed them out of the finals race. Crumbling in crunch situations is an aspect that has been a constant with Indian Athletes,” a user stated.

“Story for India this Olympics would be choking at the last moment. Vijayveer & Anish were in race of top 6 before last 10 shot. Vijay ended up shooting 3 8's in last round. Didn't hit single 8 in 1st 50 shots. Same for Anish, hitting 8's when it mattered,” another user tweeted.

“Vijayveer will learn a lot from this. A lot. Last two shots will mature him and like many of our young shooters he will come back better,” Boria Majumdar tweeted.

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How did Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala slip off in Stage 2?

Interestingly, both shooters had a very good chance of making it to the final if they continued their impressive performance in Stage 2.

To make things more interesting, Vijayveer shot 100 and 98 in the first two rounds of Stage 2 to move up to the second rank just behind South Korea's Yeongjae Cho. Anish also had a decent show with 99 and 97 in the first two rounds.

However, things changed drastically for both shooters as Vijayveer Sidhu posted a total of 92 in the third round, while Anish could post 93. As a result, Vijayveer slipped to the ninth rank with 583 - 26X, and Anish descended to the 13th rank with 582 - 22X.