Hangzhou, Sep 27 (PTI) A silver was within her grasp, but Ashi Chouksey had to settle for a bronze in the individual 50m rifle 3 position event after a lackluster shot of 8.9 in her last attempt, and she hoped to learn from the heartbreaking experience. It was to be 1-2 for India, with eventual gold winner Sift Kaur Samra and Chouksey in the top two positions, with China’s world champion Qiongyue Zhang in the third spot before the final shot.

At that time, Chouksey was ahead of Zhang by 1.1 points, but the last shot of 8.9 took the Indian down to third and she had to settle for a bronze. The Chinese shooter took the silver.

“The last shot was heartbreaking for me. I just missed the timing. There was a lot of pressure on me,” she said later.

“When I took my rifle first, I was not getting the target. So, I put it back. When I saw the timer, it was just 30 seconds left.

“I was not relaxed at all, and since it was the last shot, I was very nervous. After all, I had to shoot, so it went like that,” she said.

Samra shot a world and Games record score of 469.6 to claim the yellow metal, while Chouksey managed 451.9 to bag the third position. Zhang shot 462.3 for the silver.

“It usually happens on the first shot and the last shot, when your heart is beating fast. It’s part and parcel of life, and I’ll learn from this for my next match,” Chouksey said.

“Yesterday, we were discussing that both the gold and silver should be ours. She was even scolding how you could shoot 8.9 in the last shot,” added the 21-year-old.

Chouksey said she wanted to meet Olympic gold winner javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who reached here on Wednesday.

“I met PV Sindhu yesterday. Now, I want to meet Neeraj Chopra. I had also wanted to meet the cricketers, but they do not stay at the Athletes’ Village,” she said.

Source: PTI News