Incheon: Shweta Chaudhry shot the first medal for India in the 2014 Asian Games after she won the bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range here Saturday.
Shweta, a part of the silver winning team in 2006 Doha Asian Games, shot a total of 176.4 in the final to clinch the bronze medal while the silver went to South Korean Jung Jeehae (201.3) and China’s Zhang Mengyuan (202.2) won the gold. Jung won the World Championships earlier this month in Grenada, Spain.
World No.46 Shweta took everybody by surprised as he she finished fourth in the qualifying round with a score of 383. She had a series of 97, 94, 97 and 95 and also had 13x.
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.