NAGOYA: Having done well in the qualification stage to clinch the silver medal in the team event earlier on Friday, India shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar were gunning for more glory -- an individual medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions of the ongoing Asian Games in Nagoya.
Aishwary made a respectable start but Niraj struggled to get going in the eight-man finals comprising Olympic champions. Aishwary, a two-time Olympian, was sitting in third place after kneeling -- the first stage of the final. Niraj, meanwhile, was occupying the bottom spot.
As the match wore on, Aishwary also started to slip down the rankings while Niraj just couldn't recover and remained rooted at the bottom and he inevitably became the first finalist to get eliminated -- a forgettable eight spot. Things got worse for India soon.
As the leading pack kept up their impressive returns, Aishwary just couldn't keep up the pace.
By the 32nd shot, India's hopes were over. Aishwary ran out of time and he eventually finished as fifth-best shooter.
China had a memorable outing instead with Olympic champions -- present and past -- cornered glory. Paris Games gold medallist Liu Yukun finished on top with a score of 360.5, which was incidentally a Games Record. Zhang Changhong, the 2020 Olympic champion, finished just behind him. Kazakhstan's Islam Satpayev bagged bronze.
Earlier the Indian duo, along with Rudrankksh Patil, had secured a silver medal after a combined tally of 1762 in the qualification stage. Aishwary had returned with 589 to finish as third-best qualifier while Niraj had garnered 588. Rudrankksh, who hit 585, had missed out on the final after finishing ninth.