The star-studded shooting squad kept the Indian medal hunt firmly on course at the Asian Games when the women's 10m air pistol team culled a silver while Vijay Kumar turned around a poor qualifying display to clinch a bronze medal in the men's event in Guangzhou on Sunday.
The medal-winning feat of Kumar, who barely qualified for the final as the eighth-placed shooter, and the silver-winning effort of the women pistol shooters, followed the two silver medals in the opening day of shooting on Saturday fetched by Gagan Narang and the men's 10m air rifle team.
Kumar just about made it to the final as the eighth-best in the qualifying round but outperformed all the finalists by coming from behind to secure the bronze as the results of the qualifying rounds added to the final score.
"I know my score in the last series of the qualifying round was poor, but I was focused and did well in the final," said Kumar after winning the medal.
"I'm very happy. This is my first Asian Games and I have won a medal (bronze) in the very first event that I competed in. I did not talk to anyone before the event but I just kept my focus," he said.
Kumar said he would do better in the rapid fire event. "But this is not my main event as my main event is rapid fire pistol in which I hope to do well tomorrow".
Though he got only a bronze, Vijay Kumar's display deserves to be highlighted as he just about made it to the last eight places for the finals but outperformed all the contestants, including the gold winner Lee Daemyung of South Korea in the medal round.
Kumar shot only a modest 579 out of 600 in the preliminaries with a below-par 93 in his final shot, but his team-mates Gurpreet Singh and Omkar Singh, the gold medalist in the Delhi CWG last month, performed even more dismally and the team was eliminated. The best individual effort came from Heena who shot 381 with a 98 and 96 in it while Annu came up with two 97s for a tally of 380. Sonia tallied 379 with three 95s and a 94.
Heena missed qualifying by finishing ninth, a rung below Kazakh shooter Galina Belyayeva who also tallied 381 but edged out the Indian woman for the last qualifying spot after a three-way shoot-off also involving Mongolia's Gundegmaa Otryd.
National coach Sunny Thomas felt the women blew a very good chance to win the gold.
"We missed the gold once again (after the men's air rifle team yesterday) by a whisker. Heena was unlucky not to have qualified for the final," he said.
"Overall it is a satisfactory show. Four medals, which includes three silvers, in two days is not bad at all. Hopefully we will get the gold tomorrow," Thomas said.
