Shooters provide the only silver lining on a gloomy day

However, it was sheer bad luck that saw Anjali narrowly miss an individual bronze by a mere 0.1 point as she finished fourth. Suma came behind Anjali in the individual event with a tally 499.9 points. But the only consolation was that their performance was better than the existing Asian Games record. India had finished eighth in the last Games at Bangkok.

‘‘I had a bad seventh shot in the final. Otherwise the result could have been different,’’ Anjali said. ‘‘I was late in pulling the trigger and a slight jerk only added to my problem,’’ she added.

Even as Anjali was coming to terms with day’s performance, the talented Abhinav Bindra bowed out with a seventh-place finishing in what is regarded as is pet event in 10m air rifle.

A lot was expected from Bindra, the recipient of the Rajiv Khel Ratna award this year. But the Chandigarh teenage sensation proved a big disappointment as he shot 694.3 points. Along with Bindra, Sameer Ambekar and Bharat Singh the team totalled 1764 to finish fourth.

In the 50m air pistol, the team of Samaresh Jung (556), Ved Prakash (539) and Tapas Kumar Sikdar (525) put up a total of 1620 to finish eighth. team totalled 1764 to finish fourth.

And in tennis, the men and women’s teams had easy first round outings — the men’s team beating debutants East Timor 3-0 and the women’s team putting it across Mongolia by an identical margin. Both teams marched into the last eight.