So near yet so far: Lakshya and skeet shooters fall short of historic medals

Manika-led India beat Romania 3-2 to enter the quarter-finals of women’s T'T team event

It was a day of near misses as Lakshya Sen’s steely resolve finally wilted in the high-pressure bronze playoff, an unexpected skeet medal in shooting slipped away after a promising start, while a podium hope in wrestling was left in tears, adding to India’s mounting heartbreaks in the Olympic Games.

Sen, hoping to become India’s first male shuttler to win an Olympic medal, was expected to come out trumps against Malyasia’s world no.7 Lee Zii Jia. But it was not meant to be as he squandered a game’s advantage to lose 21-13 16-21 11-21 in a 71-minute clash.

Around the time the 22-year-old crumbled under pressure in Paris, some 300km away in Chateauroux’s shooting range, Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka lost by a solitary point to China in the skeet mixed team event, settling for the fourth spot.

Maheshwari and Naruka shot 43 to finish fourth behind China’s Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu (44) in a thrilling match for the bronze medal.