Incheon: Shooter Shweta Chaudhry gave India their first medal on the opening day action of the 17th Asian Games after the Faridabad girl clinched bronze in the Women
10m Air Pistol Finals, here today.
Shweta looked focused from the start as she sailed through even after her much fancied teammates Heena Sidhu and Malaika Goel failed to make the finals cut.
The World No.146 had a topsy turvy ride in the finals as she led the standings after 3 shots but soon slipped to sixth and then improved to third.
There was a shoot off between Chaudhry and China's Zhou for the bronze before the Indian came up trumps with a 10.7 hit.
China though stood first on the podium with Zhang Mengyuan bagging gold and Korea's Jung Jeehae getting the silver.
Among other Indians, former World No.1 Heena Sidhu and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Malaika Goel disappointed and failed to qualify for the final round. Heena, World No.4, shot a series of 94, 97, 92, 95, that included 12x, to finish 13th with a score of 378 in the qualifying round while 16-year-old Malaika, World No.20, was 24th with a score of 373. Malaika had a series of 91, 96, 91, 95 and had 8x.
The Indian team comprising Shweta, Heena and Malaika finished fifth with a score of 1134 in the team event.
Chinese markswomen Guo Wenjun, Zhang Mengyuan and Zhou Qingyuan team gold with a score of 1146. It was the fourth consecutive time for China to take the first gold medal at the Asian Games since 2002 Busan Asiad.
The 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion Guo, and her teammates Zhang and Zhou, executed a stable and consistent performance to finish first with a winning total of 1,146 points. Chinese Taipei ranked second by five points, and the bronze medal went to Mongolia, who got 1,140 points.
On expected line, China lead the the medals tally with 3 gold medals while India stand fifth with a bronze to their credit.
