Tokyo Olympics: Shooters Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini fail to reach finals of women's 10m air pistol

After an anti-climactic 7th position finish by Saurabh Chaudhury in the finals of Men's 10m Air Pistol event on Saturday. India's Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Singh Deswal took the charge on Day 2 of the Shooting event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Competing in the Women's 10m Air Pistol event, Bhaker finished at the 12th position, whereas, Deswal fell just below Bhaker at the 13th position and failed to make it in the finals.

Both were appearing in the maiden Olympics and the pressure got the better of them in the crunch moments.

Among the pool of 53 shooters, World no. 2 Bhaker began with an impressive 98, pulling off five 10s in a row. A glitch in her gun apparently affected Manu's performance in Series 2 as she managed 95. She followed it up with a 94, which plummeted her position in the qualification list. Another lowly 95 in series 4 took Bhaker further below. A 98 in series 5 lifted her chances. A nail-biting Series 6 ensued for Bhaker as she needed 58/60 in the last six shots, however, she finished the series with a 95.

With a 98, the Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist tried to stage a comeback of sorts in the fifth series but caved in under pressure in a poor final series, which saw her register one 8 and three 9s, leaving Frenchwoman Celine Goberville to bag the eighth and last qualifying spot.

Meanwhile, it has mostly been an up and down outing for world number one Yashaswini, who shot her way back into contention with a 98 in the second series, including scoring five 10s in the second part, after a subdued start. But she was not consistent enough to challenge the top guns, bowing out in 13th place with scores of 94, 98, 94, 97, 96 and 95 for an aggregate of 574.

Having started with an impressive 98, including five 10s in the first series, Manu finished the event in 12th place with a total score of 575. The problem with her gun saw her lose five minutes but she came back to manage a 95. The cut-off was 577.

World no.1 Deswal took her time to begin her series of shooting. She picked up a 94 in series 1 with a below-par 8. She quickly recovered in Series 2 with a 98 having seven 10s in a row. She followed up with another 94 in Series 3, this time with two 8s. In series 4, Deswal landed an impressive 97. Followed it up with 96 in series 5. She ended series 6 with a 95. Deswal scored 574 after 60 shots.

Chinese shooter Ranxin Jiang created an Olympic Qualification Record by scoring 587 to be on the top spot. Greek shooter Anna Korakaki finished second with 5865 points, whereas Refugee Olympic Team's Vitalina Batsarashkina finished at the third position in qualifiers with 582 points.