Asian Shooting C'ship: Manu Bhaker finishes fourth, junior women's team sweep 25m pistol event

Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Aug 25 Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on a podium finish, ending fourth in the women’s 25m pistol competition at the Asian Shooting Championship on Monday.

Bhaker tallied 25 points, falling four short of Vietnam’s Thu Vinh Trinh, who claimed bronze with 29 points. Compatriot Esha Singh also featured in the final, finishing sixth with 18 points.

India, however, found plenty of joy in the junior women’s 25m pistol final, where they completed a stunning clean sweep of medals. Payal Khatri struck gold with a total of 36 points while Naamya Kapoor (30) and Tejaswani (27) took silver and bronze respectively. The trio also secured team silver with an aggregate score of 1700, finishing behind Korea and ahead of hosts Kazakhstan.

It was a particularly strong showing from the juniors in qualification, with Naamya and Tejaswani finishing first and second while Payal entered the final in sixth place before staging her comeback.

Earlier in the day, Chinese shooters Yueyue Zhang and Jiaruixuan Xiao clinched the senior women’s gold and silver medals respectively. Zhang prevailed 4-3 in a shoot-off after both finished locked on 39 points.

India still managed to add to their senior tally, with the team of Manu, Esha and Simranpreet Kaur Brar winning the bronze medal in the team event. Their combined score of 1749 placed them behind China and South Korea.

Esha had been the standout performer in qualification, topping the field ahead of Manu and the eventual Chinese finalists Xiao and Zhang. Manu, who had already won two bronze medals in the women’s 10m air pistol individual and team events earlier in the competition, finished fourth in qualification after the precision stage, with Esha in second.

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