The poor performance of Indian shooters in the Asian Games continued on Thursday (September 24). The Men's 10m Air Pistol team, which is one of India's strongest events, also failed to win a medal. Kamaljeet finished 9th with 580 points and missed making the finals by just one point. Akash Bhardwaj stood 11th with 579 marks and Kedarling Balkrishna Uchaganve stood 35th with 568 marks.
The Indian team scored a total of 1727 points. Japan won the bronze medal with 1730 points. China won the gold medal with 1743 points and Indonesia won the silver medal with the same number of points. China won the gold medal on the basis of more inner-10.
Kedarling's performance continued to decline during the match. He was also seen changing the settings of his pistol to score points but it was not of much use. After scoring 8 points in one shot in the last stage, the Indian team was out of the medal race.
Also read: Asian Games: Will Satwik-Chirag win gold again? Lakshya and Sindhu got a tough draw
Will there not be as many medals as in the previous Asian Games?
Despite completing five consecutive days of shooting, India has not yet won a single gold medal. This is an unusual drought for the Indian shooting team, which is counted among the strongest teams in Asia. However, till now he has definitely won 4 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Earlier, India's star-studded women's 10 meter air pistol team had also failed to make it to the finals. There were a lot of expectations from the trio of two-time Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker, World Cup gold medalist Isha Singh and Suruchi Singh but they could not get the medal. These disappointments for two consecutive days have dealt a major blow to India's hopes of repeating its record performance of 22 medals, including 7 gold, in shooting at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Also read: Left handball and started rowing, now became Asiad medalist; What is the story of Satnam Singh?
Kedarling's poor performance
There was no significant relief in the qualification of Men's 10 meter Air Pistol. Kamaljeet remained in the race for the final till the last round but missed by one point. Akash Bhardwaj was also very close to entering the finals but could not make the cut. Kedarlinga's difficulties, however, were much more serious. Indian Army marksman Kedarling struggled almost from the start.
He continued to lose points and failed to achieve the high scores required to remain in the competition. Seeing performance deteriorating, he started changing the settings of his pistol in search of a solution. The Indian coach present in the spectators' gallery was clearly worried about him. Meanwhile, High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp kept pacing the audience while Kederling kept trying to control his poor performance. These changes did not have any significant impact on his condition.
Also read: Asian Games: India won medal in mixed skeet, Parinaaz-Anantjit created history
Kedarling's failure cost India dearly
There was constant uncertainty in the shooting of Kedarlinga. More shots with 9 points were coming in his account, while shots with higher scores were very less. When the match reached the final stage, India's hopes of saving the team bronze medal were almost on the verge of ending. The contest took an extraordinary turn. With the team medal position being very close, some members of the Japanese coaching staff came and stood behind Kedarling in the spectators' gallery. They were watching their last shots and hoping that the Indian shooters would lose so many points that their team would reach the bronze medal position.
A single shot of eight points in his last 10 shots proved decisive for India's medal hopes and opened the way for a medal for Japan. The Japanese coach was clearly satisfied as Kedarling's late miss took his team into medal position. Japan secured third place with 1730 points, three points ahead of India. Kedarling walked off the range in anger and disappointment, while the Indian camp had to accept another disappointing result.