Youngsters make a big bang, claim 10m air pistol gold

Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal pipped the Chinese trio for team title; Sarabjot missed out on an individual medal, finishing fourth.

Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal continued the shooting team's stellar run at the Hangzhou Asian Games by bagging the 10m air pistol team gold at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre range on Thursday. The trio shot a combined score of 1734, finishing one point clear of China. Vietnam took the third spot with a score of 1730. It is India's fourth gold in shooting, and fifth overall, taking the shooting medal count to 13.

In their first Asian Games, the three Indians shot with calmness to claw their way back from eighth among 14 teams after the first series to eventually finish on top. In what was generally a low-scoring day, the young Indian team never lost patience despite finding it tough to hit the inner 10s consistently. In fact, second-placed China and third-placed Vietnam had more high 10s (50 for India, 62 for China and 59 for Vietnam), but the Indians' superior consistency saw them through.

“I would say the biggest strength today was our consistency and never-say-die attitude. We didn’t have an ideal start. It was not a typically high-scoring match, but the boys never lost focus and persevered,” national pistol coach Samaresh Jung said.

The Indians had a slow start and trailed China by six points after the first series, scoring a modest 284 overall. China extended the gap with a 289 as the Indians could shoot only 287. The eight-point gap with the hosts was brought down to one point as India began their recovery, shooting 291 to China's 284 in the next round. The next series proved decisive as India opened a seven-point lead, and despite China taking the final two sequences, India still held a one-point gap to land gold.

“It was a tight match. I would have liked the scores to be a bit higher, to be honest. But I can’t find many faults with the boys considering it was their first Asian Games. They always had the ability, today they proved they have the right temperament too,” Jung said.

As is the case with other shooting disciplines, the men’s team is young but fairly accomplished. Narwal, 17, has already won gold in the junior (team) and senior (mixed team) World Championships while Singh, 21, won gold at the senior World Cup in Bhopal last year. Cheema, 22, is a three-time junior World Championships medallist.

“Strategically, I feel all three paced their shots very well,” Jung, who was a top pistol shooter himself, said. “Shiva had 10 seconds left after his last shot while Sarabjot had 30 to spare. This shows they didn't panic during the match.”

Cheema credited the success to team spirit. “We share a great bond, spend a lot of time together. We have our national camps and training sessions throughout the year. We are friends, family, everything to each other.”

Singh and Cheema also qualified for the eight-man individual final, but failed to medal. Cheema was the first to exit with a score of 113.3 after 12 shots. With seven 9s, two 8s and only three 10s, his 12-shot stay in the final was painful. “He is a far better shooter than that. It was his first appearance in such a competition and he could never find his rhythm. I don’t think he panicked, but he clearly felt the pressure,” Jung said. “But this is shooting and such things do happen. We will sit with him and analyse his performance.”

Singh ended the first series in second place despite two 9s, but had a horror second series where he shot 8.9, 9.5 and 9.6. Two more 9s followed in the next two series before he broke away with a sequence of 10.4, 10.3, 10.6 and 10.1. But an 8.8 in the seventh series put paid to his chances for a first Asiad medal. Even though his best competition shot arrived next -- a 10.7 -- he had fallen too far behind the top three. Singh’s campaign ended with a score of 199. The top three were Vietnam’s Quang Huy Pham (240.5), South Korea's Wonho Lee (239.4) and Uzbekistan's Vladimir Svechnikov (219.9).

Singh’s fourth place added to the growing list of Indian shooters ending just short of the podium, a trend that began with Mehuli Ghosh on Day 1 of the competition and continued with Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil the next day.

The exit of Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma has left a void in men's air pistol, and while Singh has made an encouraging start – he finished fourth in Baku and Cairo World Cups this year besides taking gold in Bhopal – the lack of big-ticket experience was evident on Thursday.

“This experience will hold the boys in good stead at the Asian Championships,” Jung said. The Asian Championships, an Olympic qualifier, begin in Changwon on October 22.