Doha: It was another day of despair for the Indian shooting contingent with the women's 25m pistol team failing to win a medal at the Asian Shooting Championships in Doha on Thursday.
With just two days remaining in the competition, India are in danger of repeating the result of the last championships in 2008 when they failed to win a single quota place for the Olympics.
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Anisa Sayeed failed in her attempt to win a second quota for India in the event after shooting a score of 576 to finish 14th. Sayeed started off on the wrong foot with scores of 93, 94 and 94 in the precision stage, which left her way down at the half-way mark.
She finally hit her stride in the second course with scores of 99, 96 and 100 in dueling, but the damage had already been done. The shoot-off for the eighth position in the final closed at 578 and Sayeed fell two points short.
Rahi Sarnobat, who had bagged a quota place for India in 2011, was equally off the pace with a disappointing tally of 574 that saw her finish 16th. Sonia Rai also finished at the same score of 574 to end any hopes of a quota.
Annu Raj Singh, shooting in the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS), asserted her class by shooting the best card of the day. Singh, who won an individual bronze in the 10m air pistol along with the team gold, finished with a score of 578, while Shweta Chaudhry shot a poor 558.
The Indian team of Sayeed, Sarnobat and Rai finished in fourth place, three points behind Kazakhstan, which won bronze with a combined total of 1727. The gold was won by China with a total of 1757 while the silver went to the Korean team which shot 1737.
"Same mistakes were repeated. Anisa missed the shoot-off by two points. Her precision series was extremely bad, she shot just 281 and 296 in dueling. Even in the team event we ended up fourth. I cannot give any excuses. Foreign coaches are asking what has happened in your team."
"Earlier when we arrived here in Doha, they used to ask whether they could practice with us as our shooters were shooting fantastic in practice. There is no comparison and no logic behind what we were shooting in practice and what we are now shooting in competition."
"It is all in the mind. They are forgetting everything. Maybe the mental approach is not correct. I feel the pressure of the quota is pulling us back," said a disappointed national coach Sunny Thomas.
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