Vijayveer Sidhu finished fourth in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol final at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games with a score of 21. But, earlier in the day, the Indian men's team won bronze after Sidhu, Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala scored a combined 1718 across the two-stage qualification.
In the final, China's Li Yuehong won gold with 33, compatriot Liu Yangpan won silver with 31 while Nikita Chiryukin of Kazhakstan won bronze with 26.
BRONZE MEDAL
The bronze came about after a tight, tight finish at the end. They were tied with Indonesia on total scores, but having shot 45 inner tens to Indonesia's 37, India took third place by a whisker.
China's incredible display which saw their three shooters (Wang Xinjie, Liu Yangpan, Li Yuehong) finish one, two, three in qualification sealed the team gold by a margin, scoring 1756. South Korea won silver with 1734.
The Indians were on track for a good finish till an uncharacteristic stumble at the end by Anish, who had finished fifth in stage one of qualification. But a 0 at the end saw his total score plummet to 560, and he ended 22nd. Adarsh, meanwhile, finished 14th with 576.
Sidhu recovered for a weak stage 1 to finish on 582 points and finish sixth after qualification.
FOURTH-PLACED FINISH
In the six-man final, Sidhu started with a very poor 2 and 3 in the first two series. With elimination staring him in the face at the fourth series, he stepped up his game to shoot a 4 and a 5. Pakistan's Gulam Bashir, who had a 4 and 4 in the first two then stumbled with a 2 and 3 in his next two and was the first to be eliminated.
In the next elimination stage, Sidhu shot a 4 and Indonesia's Anang Yulianto shot a 3 as Sidhu moved into the top 4. But then a 3 from Sidhu in series six was the end of his final as the Chinese shooters stepped on the gas.
