Indian shooters draw a blank

After two relatively fruitful days at the Asian Games, Indian shooters drew a blank at the wind-swept Lusail ranges, none managing to qualify for the finals in their respective events, in Doha on Monday.

Star shooter Anjali Bhagwat, who was regarded a medal prospect, was way off the mark, finishing a disappointing 20th in the women's 50 metres rifle prone competition with a tally of 578 and an average score of 9.650.

Her compatriots, young Maharashtra shooter Tejaswini Sawant (15th with 581) and Deepali Deshpande (20th with 578) finished ahead of her, but well behind the pecking order in the event, won by Kazakh shooter Olga Dovgun, with 591 points.

Olga had finished fourth in 10m air rifle event, held two days ago.

The silver and bronze medals were grabbed by Chotpaibunsin Thanyalak of Thailand and Wang Chengyi of China, both scoring 591.

Coach Sunny Thomas said not much was expected from the shooters in Monday's events.

"It is disappointing not to qualify for the final, but it was expected. The performance could have been a little better, but our shooters could not cope up with the windy conditions," Thomas said.

"We should not lose heart just because we could not make it to the final. It is a learning process for us on how to handle such situations. Hopefully, we can learn and adapt fast in the coming days," Thomas added.

The men rifle shooters did no better, with Surendra Rathod coming up with 586 (98, 98, 99, 93, 98, 100) to finish 12th in the 50m prone event, in which a score of 595 by Liu Gang of China fetched the gold.

Sushil Ghalay (583) ended up 17th while Imran Hasan Khan (579) brought up the rear in 34th position.

The silver and bronze medals went to Turkmenistan (592) and South Korea's Lee Hyun Tae (590).