Naruka, Chauhan lose to China, finish fourth in mixed skeet event

New Delhi: India’s Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan gave a stiff fight to China’s Lyu Jianlin and Jiang Yiting but lost the bronze medal playoff in skeet mixed team event at the Paris Olympics. It was yet another heartbreaking fourth place finish for India as they lost by just one hit (44-43).
The Chinese pair started well with all eight hits. Anant Jeet missed one in the series as India lagged 8-7. China’s Jiang had missed three shots in the next series but India too missed two, just about drawing level at 13 hits all.
It was neck-and-neck from there in the third series (20-20) but China took a one-hit advantage in the next series of eight shots (28-27). Even as Anant Jeet and Chauhan did not miss any in the next two series, China was equally on target and did not allow any window to come back into the match, eventually sealing the bronze medal. Shooting from station No. 5, India held their nerves to score eight hits but both Lyu, who had a perfect 24 hits in the match, and Jiang did shot brilliantly under pressure to sail through.
This is the fist time that mixed team skeet event is being held at the Olympics. India’s Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan qualified for the bronze medal match setting up a clash against China’s Lyu Jianlin and Jiang Yiting.
A total of 15 teams competed in the event. Singh and Maheshwari shot 146 to qualify in 4th place. Maheshwari was impressive notching up 50/50 in her final two rounds. She missed one target in the first round. Naruka, on the other hand, had scores of 25, 23 and 24 in his three rounds.