Asian Games: With gold in sight, India settle for silver again

Aichi (Japan): For a good part of the men’s 10m air rifle final, Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh B Patil were engaged in an intense battle with China’s Lihao Sheng at the shooting range in Aichi on Monday.All of 21, Sheng is ranked world No. 1, has two gold medals from the 2024 Paris Olympics and a silver from the 2021 Tokyo Games, and entered the 20th Asian Games as the defending champion in the event.Himanshu, 20, and Rudrankksh, 22, have impressive profiles of their own and were well aware of the tall task ahead. Ultimately, the two Indians, focused primarily on themselves rather than their rivals, took turns leading the field before relentlessly chasing Sheng. But an unperturbed Sheng held his nerve to walk away with gold and Games and Asian records with a score of 254.2 points.Once again, a top-of-the-podium finish was within sight for the Indians. In the end, they had to settle for the other two medals on offer instead. On the second day of the shooting competition, slow starter Himanshu finished strongly to win silver with 252.4 points, while early leader Rudrankksh lost momentum to take bronze with 230.9.Earlier, the combined qualification efforts of the two youngsters and teenager Parth Mane helped India finish second in the team event. Any guesses who won team gold? The Chinese, of course. Sheng, along with Changhong Zhang and Sihan Ma, shattered China’s previous world record of 1898.4 points to set a new mark of 1899.0.Qualifying third, Rudrankksh, a former world No. 1, moved to the top spot and stayed there until the 15th shot of the 24-shot elimination format in the individual final. By then, Dhillon, who had initially lingered in the middle of the field, had climbed to second courtesy of some perfect 10.9s. Sheng remained a mere 0.1 point behind in third.The script of the final completely flipped from shot 16. Sheng’s 10.7 catapulted him into pole position, while lower 10 scores from the Indian duo suddenly pushed them back into the role of chasers.It was after shot 18 that the Indians realised gold was beginning to slip out of reach. Dhillon’s 9.8 made the packed gallery erupt in a collective gasp. The birthday boy’s fumble pushed him down to third, with Rudrankksh still just 0.5 points behind leader Sheng.But Sheng isn’t the one to surrender any sort of lead. Parallally, Himanshu regrouped and, over the final six shots, outshot a tiring Rudrankksh to finish as the better-placed of the two Indians.“Colour of the medal can change, but all I knew was I didn’t want to give up until the end,” said Himanshu in the post-event interaction.Asked whether a prolific shooter like Sheng intimidated him during the final of his maiden Asian Games, Himanshu said: “When we are all in a changing room, we see them and think they are legends in shooting. But at the firing point, like me, they too start from zero. We both have to start from zero. Then it’s the one who has the strength who wins. So, I was just focused on myself.”The young brigade of 10m rifle shooters, with four silvers and a bronze from two days of competition, have set the right tone for the rest of their colleagues to reproduce and emulate.

Source: Deccan Herald