CHENNAI: For the second time within a week, Manu Bhaker fell just short of a podium finish, missing out on the prized Olympic quota in the process.
The double Olympic medallist made a horror start, survived multiple shootouts before making a charge for a medal in the women's 25m pistol final on Tuesday but eventually she was forced to settle for a fourth-place finish.
Bhaker and World No 1 Esha Singh, the other Indian in the eight-woman final, made a disastrous start and occupied the last two spots after the 15 shots in the ongoing ISSF World Championships in Doha, Qatar. In the next five shots, Manu displayed marked improvement while Esha just couldn't find her range and was the first one to be eliminated.
Bhaker then went on to edge former world champion Doreen Vennekamp in the first shootout before surviving two more shootouts and putting herself in contention for a bronze medal. China's Zhang Yueyue was the other shooter who was battling with the Indian for the final spot on the podium. Zhang, who had shown signs of nervousness just moments earlier, delivered a flawless five-shot series while Bhaker made a couple of misses, which proved to be her undoing. Bhaker finished with 27.
Reigning Olympic champion Yang Jiin and unheralded Trinh Thu Vinh of Vietnam were in the league of their own. Trinh, who made a flawless start, led for most of the final but Yang showed her mettle by making a commanding finish (she had a flawless last three five-shot series), rewriting the World Record in the process. Going into the event, Esha held the World Record tally of 43. Yang garnered an impressive 44. Trinh's misses towards the end proved costly but she still ended with 43 to clinch the silver along with the quota.
Given the start, Bhaker showed great resilience to be in a position to challenge for a medal but this miss, second narrow miss after fifth-place finish in her other event (10m air pistol) just last week, would have been frustrating.
Just a day earlier, Esha (591), Manu (587) had showed plenty of promise to qualify for the finals as third and sixth-best shooters, respectively. Divya TS had just missed out on the finals after returning with 584, which was only good enough for a 10th-place finish.
However, their combined tallies had proven to be gold-worthy as they had topped the charts with a 1761, finishing ahead of Korea (1748) and Vietnam (1745).
Though India sit second on the points table, it has been a rather quiet campaign for the shooters from the country. Jaypal Malviya (men's 10m air pistol) is the only shooter to win a quota for the country so far.
