Rathore finishes with bronze

India missed out on a gold medal as Olympic silver-medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore managed an individual bronze in double trap shooting after guiding the country to team silver on the fifth day of the 15th Asian Games in Doha on Tuesday.

Title-favourite Rathore was below par in the first two rounds of the qualification stage at the Lusail range -- scoring only 46 and 43 -- before finding the targets for a 'perfect 50' to help India end up second in the team event.

Rathore fired 46 in the final, but the 36-year-old Armyman, with an overall tally of 185, had to settle for the bronze behind Chinese marksmen gold-medallist Nan Wang (189, 45 in final) and second-placed Vin Yuan Hu (187, 45).

In the morning, the men's trio of Rathore, Ronjan Singh Sondhi (136) and Vikram Bhatnagar (134) helped the country to its fourth silver and seventh medal from the shooting range.

Rathore, lying at 13th after two rounds in the qualifying event, perked up with a determined last-round effort that fetched him a perfect score of 50 and the third place.

The Indian threesome, with an aggregate of 409 points, ended 15 short of champions China. Chinese Taipei took the bronze with a score of 397.

With two medals today, India's tally from the Games stood at one gold, four silver and three bronze, the only yellow metal coming through the efforts of Grandmaster Koneru Humpy in women's rapid chess yesterday.

Indian shuttlers also stayed on course for a medal with top performers Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand romping into the pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles.

World No. 31 Anand had no difficulty in warding off the challenge from Bahrain's Jaafar Hasan with a 21-9, 21-11 victory in just about 15 minutes in the round of 32.

Sridhar was less convincing against Sri Lanka's Dinuka Nishan Karunaratne, winning 21-16, 21-12 in a 20-minute tussle.

Experienced men's pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar whipped Sri Lankan brothers Diluka and Dinuka Karunaratne 21-6, 21-9 to march into the pre-quarterfinals.