Rio 2016 Olympics: After debutants, onus on experienced Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang

India have had a poor showing so far in shooting events at the Rio 2016 Olympics with only Jitu Rai reaching Finals.

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Abhinav Bindra will begin his campaign in Rio de Janeiro in what are his final Olympics Games. (Source: PTI File)

It has been a disappointing Olympics for India in the shooting event. The women shooters comprising of Ayonika Paul, Apurvi Chandela and Heena Sidhu have not been able to go past the qualifiers in their respective events. For the men, Gurpreet Singh fell to the same fate while Jitu Rai finished eighth in the 10m air pistol event.

On Sunday, besides Heena, trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai didn’t fare well either in their first round.

With a strong 12-member shooting team for the Rio 2016 Olympics, the performances have been poor so far with only Jitu coming close to even making a dent. The onus on day 3, Monday, then shifts to the 10m air rifle event with experienced stalwarts after the debutants got things underway on the first two days.

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Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang will pick up their guns and put their brilliance and nerves to test – if there are any. Bindra who has already announced that this will be his last Olympics, has participated in four Summer Games prior to this. Narang, on the other hand, has competed in three.

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To add to their experienced career, both have felt the joy of standing atop the podium at the Olympics and wearing the medal that matters most. Bindra wore the gold medal in Beijing while Narang the bronze in London.

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Also in shooting action today will be Chenai and Manavjit to improve their first day’s qualification rounds that saw them stand at 19th and 17th. Manavjit scored 23, 23 and 22 in his three rounds while Chenai shot 22, 23 and 22 to do marginally poorer.