Tokyo Olympics: Saurabh Chaudhary finishes 7th in 10m air pistol

There was heartbreak for Indian 10m air pistol shooter Saurabh Chaudhary who despite emerging on top in the qualification round earlier on Saturday finished seventh as the country suffered its biggest setback in the shooting arena on SaturdayThe 19yearold Chaudhary who had given enough indication that he was in great form to finish on the podium when he shot 586 to go into the finals as the leader was the second shooter to be eliminated from among the eight finalists finishing seventhChaudhary got things rolling with a 101 in the finals but he finished at the bottom of the pile after the first five shots with a score of 477 After 10 shots the Meerutborn marksman had moved to seventh and was only 03 points behind sixthplaced Christian Reitz of GermanyTied at 1070 after the first elimination shot Chaudhary managed to stay on with 1172 points even as South Koreas Koreas Kim Mose was the first to get eliminated 1158 pointsBefore the next shot Chinas Zhang Bowen had a 03 point deficit but walking into the deciding shot Saurabh registered a poor 96 to Zhangs 102 and became the second marksman in the finals to get eliminatedEarlier the Indian ace had come up with superb marksmanship topping the qualification roundAlso Read Sensational Mirabai Chanu snatches silver medal at Tokyo OlympicsThe Meerut boy shot 586 to be tied with Chinese Bowen Zhang after qualification but as the Indian had more inner 10s 27 to his name he took the first spot going into the finalsThe other Indian in the fray Abhishek Verma was in the reckoning for a place in the finals But he shot two 9s followed by two 8s in his last four shots which meant that he finished 17th with a score of 575The 19yearold Chaudhary started off with five shots of 10 leading the competition early But it was followed by five shots of nine to end the first series with 95 In the second and third series he had scores of 98 eachThe fourth series was stellar for him getting perfect 10s in all the ten shotsChaudhary had 43 shots of 10s till shooting a nine on the secondlast shot of the fifth series ending with 98 In the final series he started off with six 10s followed by three 9s and ending with a 10The 31yearold Verma had an iffy start with 94 in the first series He was able to overcome it by shooting 96 and 98 in the second and third series respectively A 97 in the fourth series and 98 in five propelled him to reach inside the topeightVerma looked set to join Chaudhary in the finals till the final series but the meltdown in the final four shots caused the formers downfallAlso Read For MMA fighter Ritu Phogat fortune favours the braveThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever