India's campaign in the ISSF World Championship began on an unimpressive note as none of the six 10m air pistol shooters competing in Baku on Thursday were able to clinch a 2024 Paris Olympic quota, though the men clinched a consolation bronze medal in the team event.
The men's 10m air pistol team, comprising Shiva Narwal (579 points), Sarabjot Singh (578) and Arjun Singh Cheema (577) clinched the bronze medal with an aggregate score of 1734.
The Chinese team of Zhang Bowen (587), Liu Junhui (582) and Xie Yu (580) took the gold medal with an aggregate of 1749 points, while the German team, comprising Robin Walter (586), Michael Schwald (581) and Paul Froehlich (576) bagged the silver with an aggregate score of 1743.
On a day when the Chinese shooters claimed all four gold medals at stake, the Indian men fared poorly in individual 10m air pistol event, with none of them making it to the eight-player final.
Narwal (579) finished in 17th place after the qualification round, while Sarabjot was 18th with 578 points. Cheema finished 26th with a qualifying round score of 577.
The individual gold was won by China's Bowen (244.3), while the silver and bronze were bagged by Serbia's Damir Mikec (240.8) and Bulgaria's Kiril Kirov (215.7) respectively.
The Indian women fared even worse with the 10m air pistol trio of Esha Singh (572), Palak (570) and Divya TS (566) aggregating 1708 to finish 11th in the team event.
The team gold was bagged by the Chinese with an aggregate score of 1728, followed by Hungary (1726) and Iran (1724) respectively.
In the individual category, Esha shot 572 in qualification to finish 32nd, while Palak was 40th with a score of 570. Divya, with a score of 566, finished 66th overall.
The individual gold in the event went to China's Jiang Ranxin (239.8), while the silver and bronze were won by Greece's Anna Korakaki (238.3) and China's Li Xue (218.9) respectively.
The World Championship also serves as the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification tournament.
