New Delhi: India’s shooting campaign got off to a sombre start with both rifle pairs failing to make the finals in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre on Saturday.

But there was still a sense of optimism Indian pair of Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta shot a score of 628.7 to finish sixth in the 28-team qualification round while Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh were 12th with a combined tally of 626.3.

In mixed team event, only four pairs make it to the final -- as opposed to eight in the individual event -- with the top two fighting for gold and the third and fourth-placed teams gunning for a bronze medal.

Both shooters fire three series each and the individual scores are added to arrive at the team’s final score. Each series has 10 shots, meaning a shooter gets to fire 30 times in the competition. The pair, consequently, fires 60 shots.

Chinese pair of Yuting Huang and Lihao Sheng finished on top with 632.2, followed by South Korea’s Jihyeon Keum and Hajun Park scoring 631.4 to take the second spot. Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev were next (630.8) with German duo of Anna Jannsen and Maximilian Ulbrich trailing them at 629.7.

Ramita and Babuta didn’t shoot particularly poorly but the event demands an insane level of perfection. Babuta even hit a perfect 10.9 in his second series but such was the level of shooting that the pair still found itself out of contention. The Chinese found the inner 10s with remarkable regularity with Sheng hitting 10.5 or more 18 times out of possible 30. Huang’s 22 out of 30 shots were 10.5 or more.

The result comes as a blow to India’s medal chances as the rifle shooters were in commendable touch leading up to the Games. The same shooters will later line up for individual qualifications on Sunday and it will be imperative for them to put the disappointment behind in what promises to be another high-scoring, high-quality affair.

First gold for China

China’s Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting went on to win the first gold of the Olympic defeating South Korea’s Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun in the final. Sheng, a silver medallist in the individual 10m air rifle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Huang, a two-time gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships, outscored the Korean duo 16-12 to seal victory.

Earlier, Kazakhstan duo Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev won the first medal of the Olympic Games after claiming an upset bronze. Le and Satpayev cruised to victory over Germany’s Maximilian Ulbrich and Anna Janssen, outscoring their opponents 17-5. Janssen, ranked world number one in the event, and Ulbrich, the world No.19, had been favourites to prevail against Le and Satpayev, ranked 33rd and 95th in the world respectively.

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