Asian Games 2023 Shooting: Divya TS, birthday boy Sarabjot Singh miss gold by a whisker, settle for silver in 10m air pistol mixed team

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Asian Games 2023 Shooting: The first medal for India came in shooting as the duo of Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS settled for a silver in a nail-biting 10m air pistol mixed team final on Saturday (September 30).

With this, India's medal tally rose to 34 in the ongoing 19th Asian Games and it was also the 19th medal for the country in shooting. Indian shooters have so far bagged 6 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze in Hangzhou.

Asian Games 2023: How Sarabjot-Divya missed the gold medal

The Indian duo - who are the defending world champions - lost to China's Zhang Bowen and Jiang Ranxin in the gold medal match. Despite leading the final round till the seventh series, the Indian duo failed to maintain composure in the second half against the Chinese to concede the gold to their opponents.

In the final, the Indian shooters took an early lead in the first set of the series against the Chinese shooters. As the Indian pair took a 7-3 lead in the final, the Chinese side took a time-out. The Chinese shooters claimed two back-to-back series against the Indians and didn't look back from then on.

At the end of the 11th series, the scores were levelled at 11-11 and soon after the Chinese shooters went ahead at the end of the 12th series but the Indians responded strongly to equalise in the 13th series.

Sarabjot - who is celebrating his 22nd birthday - and Divya fought back and shot in excess of 10s but the Chinese duo held on to their nerves in the cliffhanger to shoot the gold medal.

Despite securing the silver medal, Sarabjit looked disappointed and the emotion on his face clearly showed that he believed that the yellow metal was theirs for the taking but lapses in the final series of shooting cost him and his partner. He was, however, cheered by his teammates after winning a silver on his birthday.

Meanwhile, the People's Republic of Iran and the People's Republic of Korea won the bronze medal. All the winners were awarded the medals soon after and posed for the cameras.

Earlier in the day, Sarabjot and Divya emerged as the top qualifiers and entered as favourites in the final against a determined Chinese duo who clearly had the support of the local crowd.

Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS scored 577 points in the 10m air pistol mixed team shooting qualification round at the Asian Games 2023.

Both shooters were eyeing their second medal at Hangzhou. Sarabjot Singh clinched the men's 10m air pistol team gold while Divya won the 10m air pistol team silver. Singh failed to make a double of gold and Divya couldn't change the colour of her medal in Hangzhou.