Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema sparkled in patches but could not make the men’s 10m air pistol final after both the air rifle mixed teams also fell by the wayside during qualification in a disappointing start for Indian shooters in the Olympic Games on Saturday. Sarabjot finished ninth with a total score of 577 in the qualifications while Arjun ended way behind at 18th with 574. Germany’s Robin Walter, who also shot 577, grabbed the last (eighth) qualifying spot after managing to shoot one inner 10 (X) more than Sarabjot’s 16. A perfect 100 in the fourth series propelled the 22-year-old Sarabjot into the top-three after a poor start but he failed to sustain the momentum and fizzled out.

Cheema shot 10 perfect 10s off his last 10 shots, which lifted him to the fourth position but he too lost the plot after promising much.

The 23-year-old Cheema collected 97 points from Series 2 (8, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10) and was placed 10th in the list. He collected 96 points from Series 1. However, a poor 7 followed by a 9 from Cheema saw him slip outside the top eight.

Both Cheema and Sarabjot were part of the Indian side that won the 10m air pistol team gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year.

Disappointment in mixed rifle event

Earlier in the day, the Indian shooters were eliminated in the 10m air rifle mixed team qualifications stage.

Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta finished sixth with a total score of 628.7, while Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh ended 12th with an aggregate score of 626.3.

The duo of Ramita and Babuta came close and was placed fifth with three shots remaining but fell 1.0 point short of the medal round cut-off.

Babuta enjoyed a fine start in the second relay and had a sequence that read 10.5, 10.6, 10.5, 10.9, while Ramita managed 10.2, 10.7, 10.3, 10.1 in the second series.

But, to get into the bronze medal round, they needed to do more than what they eventually achieved. Shooters from China, Korea and Kazakhstan dominated the qualifications.

China eventually won the first gold medal of the Games in this event after qualifying as the top team for the finals.

A side has to get to the top four to enter the medal matches.