Rio Olympics: Indian shooting’s first medal-less Games since 2000

NEW DELHI: After medals at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics, Indian shooting closed out the 2016 Rio Games without a single medal. It is now what was widely expected after two medals in London four years ago, and with 12 shooters sent to Rio de Janeiro.
In the last of the shooting events, Chain Singh and Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions qualification.Chain Singh - who won gold in this event at the 2016 South Asian Games - was the more accurate of the Indian pair at the Olympic Shooting Centre, shooting 392 in the kneeling stage, 397 in the prone stage and 380 in the standing stage for a total of 1168 points. Some brilliant shots underlined the capabilities of the 27-year-old, for whom Rio was his first Olympics platform, but he slipped out of the top ten and ended at 24th position.
Narang, ranked 42nd in the world in this event, shot 383 in kneeling, 395 in prone and 384 in standing for a total of 1162 and finished at 38th place. A bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympics, Narang came to Rio de Janeiro hoping to build on his success of four years ago and by his high standards, failing to qualify for the final of each of his three events will have left him crestfallen.
Narang had failed to qualify in his two prior events, as did Chain Singh. The closest India came to a shooting medal in Rio was in the final of the men’s 10m air rifle on August 7, when in his last appearance on the Olympic stage, Abhinav Bindra came within 0.1 of winning a second medal. The only other Indian shooter to reach a final in Rio was Jitu Rai, who ended eighth in the men’s 10m air pistol.
In 2004, Lieutenant-Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had become India’s first ever individual silver medal winner at an Olympic Games, claiming second position in the Men's Double Trap at Athens. Four years later in Beijing, Bindra made history by winning a gold medal in the 10m air rifle event to end India's excruciating wait for an individual gold medalist. It was India's first Olympic yellow medal since 1980 when the men's hockey team returned home on a high.
At the 2012 London Games, India won two medals in shooting: Narang brought India its first medal of the Olympics after winning bronze in the men's 10m air rifle event, and then Vijay Kumar claimed silver in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol.