NEW DELHI:Heena Sidhu, Kynan Chenai, Ayonika Paul! The Indian trio had secured three consecutive Rio quotas in as many days. But Saturday turned out to be day of misses as Mohammed Asab and Akhil Sheoran missed the mark by a whisker.
After topping the qualifers, World No 7 Asab had high hopes of topping the scores in the elimination stage. Showing lot of intent, the 28-year-old started well but two misses in the middle stage proved too costly as he could not make it to shootout for top two positions which also had quota attached to it. Instead, he had to settle for bronze in the men’s double trap finals here.
He was visibly shattered after missing out on a golden opportunity. One could barely hear his monotonous voice as he tried to make sense of what occurred. “I tried my best but I’m disappointed. I had a very good chance to win a quota but I squandered the chance. The bronze is no consolation as I really wanted to win the quota.”
As he continued to explain his painful experience, he revealed that he was playing through injury. “I took a pain killer in the morning for my shoulder injury and the effects were starting to wear off. Due to my injury I could not train properly for the finals here and it could have affected the final result today.” Qualifiers star Ankur Mittal struggled in the elimination stage to finish fifth. Sheoran was in contention for bronze and a quota spot in men’s 10m air rifle. However, inexperience led to his downfall. The 19-year-old finished fourth.