Asian Games 2026: Pistol, rifle stars remain gold-less

Indias shooting struggles at the Asian Games deepened on Thursday as the mens 10m air pistol team which is traditionally one of the countrys strongest disciplines drew a blank here Kamaljeet Aakash Bhardwaj and Kedarling Uchaganve all missed the eightshooter final leaving India emptyhanded in an event in which the nation was expected to challenge for a medalKamaljeet came agonisingly close finishing ninth with 580 just one point short of the qualification mark while Bhardwaj shot 579 to finish 11th Kedarling endured a nightmare outing finishing 35th with 568 Indias combined score of 1727 was enough for fourth place but Japan who had trailed for much of the competition seized their opportunity when Kedarlings scores began to dip sharply and surged into the bronzemedal position with 1730It was another disappointing day for an Indian contingent that has now completed five days of shooting without a gold medal an unusual drought for the Asian powerhouse even though four silver and three bronze medals have been secured by it The result came a day after Indias starstudded womens 10m air pistol team of double Olympicmedallist Manu Bhaker and World Cup goldmedallists Esha Singh and Suruchi Singh also failed to make the finalThe backtoback disappointments have dealt a significant blow to Indias hopes of matching its record haul of 22 shooting medals including seven gold at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games For the Indian shooting fans watching from the stands Thursdays performance only added to the uncomfortable question that has been hanging over the contingent what is going wrongThe mens 10m air pistol qualification offered little comfort Kamaljeet stayed in contention until the closing stages but could not find the extra point needed to break into the final Bhardwaj too remained within touching distance but could not make the cut Kedarlings problems however were far more pronounced The Indian Army shooter struggled almost from the start repeatedly dropping points and finding very few of the high scores needed to remain competitiveAs his performance deteriorated he began changing the settings of his pistol in search of a solution leaving Indian coaches in the spectator area visibly concerned High Performance Director Pierre Beauchamp meanwhile paced around the stands as Kedarling tried to arrest his slide However the adjustments did little to change the course of his competition Kedarling continued to fire erratically with too many nines and too few high scoresAs the competition entered its closing stages Indias hopes of salvaging a team bronze were already hanging by a thread Then came an extraordinary twist With the team medal positions finely poised members of the Japanese coaching staff gathered behind Kedarling in the spectator area watching his final shots and hoping the Indian shooter would drop enough points to allow their team to move into bronzemedal positionThe underpressure Kedarling faltered An eight in his final sequence of 10 shots effectively ended Indias hopes and opened the door for Japan The Japanese coaches left the area visibly pleased knowing that Kedarlings late lapse had helped their team move into medal position Japan finished third with 1730 three points ahead of India China took the team gold with 1743 while Indonesia won silver after also shooting 1743 China prevailed on the inner10 count recording 70 shots closer to the centre of the target compared to Indonesias 57At the top of the individual qualification standings Indonesias Muhamad Iqbal Raja Prabovo produced one of the days standout performances firing an impressive 589 He finished six points clear of Chinas secondplaced shooter who shot 583 For India the numbers told a very different story Kedarling left the range in a huff while the Indian camp was left to absorb another disappointing resultBeauchamp who oversees Indias datadriven performance analysis including granular tracking of shooters video recordings and physiological data besides sportscience integration mental regulation and broader system building declined to analyse the teams performance immediately He said he would speak only after the shooting competitions at the Asian Games are over I cannot speak right now I will only talk after Indias competition at the Games are over he saidThis 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