India’s skeet team loses bronze-medal match to China at Paris Olympics

India’s Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka failed to secure a historic bronze in the skeet mixed team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday. The Indian duo aggregated 146 in the qualifications to set up a heavyweight clash with China’s Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu for a podium finish on Day 10 of the Summer Games in Paris.
Chauhan recorded scores of 24, 25, and 25 (74), while Naruka also registered an identical tally of 74 (25, 23, 24) in the qualification round of the skeet mixed team event. In station 1 of the bronze-medal match, China’s Lyu and Jiang earned perfect scores of 4/4 against India. In reply, India’s Anant Jeet missed out on one of the four targets (3/4) in the first station. Chauhan earned a score of 4/4 to kickstart her bid in the medal match against China. Trailing China (8/8) after the first station, India (7/8) began shooting first in Station 2 of the bronze medal match.
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Anant Jeet repeated the previous station performance by getting three targets out of the four in station 2. Chauhan also missed one of her targets in the second station. With Jiang missing three targets, India (16) and China (16) ended Station 2 level-pegging. Tied on scores after Station 3, India (20/24) gave China (20/24) a slender lead in the next station. A point behind after Station 4, Anant Jeet and Chauhan made a perfect start in Station 5.
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In the closely contested encounter, India had to hit all eight targets and hoped China shooters would miss a few to seal the bronze medal. Anant Jeet and Chauhan fired all four targets in the decider. Edging out India in the bronze medal thriller, Lyu and Jiang achieved a perfect 4/4 to secure a bronze finish for China. Losing the bronze medal match to China (44/48), India (43/48) finished fourth in the skeet mixed team shooting event.