Hangzhou, Sep 26 (PTI) India’s Divyansh Panwar and Ramita Jindal buckled under pressure as they squandered a big lead to lose to Korea in an engrossing bronze medal match of the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the Asian Games here on Tuesday.
Divyansh and Ramita were leading 8-0 initially but the Korean pair of Park Hajun and Lee Eunseo made a remarkable comeback to win the match 20-18.
Ramita, who on Monday won the 10m air rifle team silver and individual bronze, was the more consistent of the two and had four shots of 10.8 while Divyansh had one. Divyansh also had two bad shots of 9.9 and 9.8.
The 20-year-old Panwar, who was part of the 10m air rifle gold-winning team on Monday, shot 314.3, while the 19-year-old Ramita shot 313.9 to aggregate 628.2.
Earlier, the Indian duo finished sixth in the qualification round and thus faced third placed team Korea in the bronze medal match.
Unlike the individual 10m air rifle event, where eight shooters qualify for the finals, in mixed team six pairs make the medal round. Here too, the top two placed teams compete for the gold, while the remaining four pairs are divided into two groups and compete for two bronze medals.
The other bronze was won by Kazakhstan who beat Iran 17-11.
Hosts China, who had topped the qualification round, beat Uzbekistan 16-2 in the gold medal match.
It was a medal-less day for the Indian shooters after winning five medals, including a gold, in the first two days of the competition.
The Indian pair allowed the Koreans to come back into the match after taking an 8-0 lead. After that, the Koreans won four series out of the next five while one was split. It was 9-9 midway, but the Indians surged to 13-9 and were on course to win the match.
In the race to reach the winning score of 16, India were 15-1 but lost the next two series to level the score at 15-15.
The next three series saw the two pairs scoring identical points in the nerve-wracking moments to be at 18-18 before the Koreans won 20-18. There were five tied scores in the match.
“There was a little bit of pressure, there were ties also. Once the scores cross 16, anybody can win and it is a matter of luck. The start was good, so also in the middle. I had a few bad shots but Ramita was superb and she made up for those bad shots,” Divyansh said later.
“I have played in so many finals and there was no pressure (when there were four ties before the end) because I have been into this kind of situation many times. It was not our day.” In the women’s 25m pistol, Manu Bhaker was at the top spot after the precision event while Esha Singh was third. Rhythm Sangwan was lying at 11th. The rapid section will be held on Wednesday.
The Indian trio also topped the team chart with 876 points after the precision section.
Source: PTI News
