Indian hopes of Olympic glory in the 10m air pistol slipped away in agonising circumstances as Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema failed to make it into the top 8 and a place in the final. A heartbroken Sarabjot had tears in his eyes as he missed the eighth and final spot by virtue of having one fewer inner-ring than Germany’s Robin Walters. Sarabjot finished 9th, with 577-16x while Walters had 577-17x.
Sarabjot took his time to get into his zone. His initial shots were spaced 20-22 seconds apart,which came down to 13-14 seconds in the 6th and final series. Was this part of his strategy or poor time management? Abhishek Rana, Sarabjot’s personal coach, speaking exclusively to RevSportz, said, “What happens is that you want to take your time in the initial shots and get in the range of 95s in the initial series.
“When you get the hang of it, your time comes down. It was sheer bad luck today.”
After the 4th series, Sarabjot was up to third place, but he couldn’t maintain the momentum. There were instances when he and Rana exchanged glares and instructions. “I was trying to keep him calm and giving him some technical advice,” said Rana.
As for Cheema, he had a poor session in Chateauroux. He finished 18th, with 574-17x. When you are going for a final spot in the Olympics, you have to avoid the 8s and 7s. Cheema had four 8s and a 7 on his score sheet. Sarabjot had only one 8.
Serbia’s Damir Mikec, the 40-year-old who topped the standings, also hit the inner-rin 10 only 17 times, the same as Cheema, but he had only one 8 and his lowest series was a 96.