Rio Olympics 2016: Jitu Rai misses qualification for 50m pistol finals by a whisker

Rio de Janeiro: Indian shooter Jitu Rai belied the sense of expectations nursed by many and crashed out of the Rio Olympics after failing to make the final of men’s 50-metre pistol, his pet event, on Wednesday. Along with Rai, Prakash Nanjappa, the other Indian participant in the event, too fell by the wayside in the qualification round as he finished 25th with 547. The 28-year-old finished 12th in the six-series qualifying after being placed fourth at the end of the fifth and penultimate series at the Olympic Shooting Centre. Rai aggregated 554. [caption id=“attachment_2947932” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jitu Rai. AP[/caption] Entering the sporting extravaganza as India’s biggest medal hope, the world number three army man from Mhow had two poor series in the third and last in windy conditions. As a rule, the top eight qualify for the final. “Sapna toot gaya, kya karoon (my dream is shattered),” the Nepalese born Rai told PTI at the Dry Firing Range. He was consoled by his teammates and national pistol coach Smirnov Pavel. “I tried my best and was not under pressure but I don’t know what happened in the last series. Maybe I was not lucky enough,” Rai added as he was consoled by Vietnamese Hoang Xuan Vinh who bagged the gold in 10m air pistol where Jitu had finished eighth in the final. Rai is a gold medallist at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Cup and a silver winner at the World Championship. Jitu was inside the top eight in the last series but time was running out as he had less than 15 minutes left for the last 10 shots and he struggled to take aim. He was seen taking his shot and then stopping to resist the wind. As it was announced that there was only five minutes left, Rai seemed to have hurried his last three shots. Needed to shoot three 10s, Rai managed 9, 7 and 10 in his last three attempts to finish a woeful last series with 88. Rai started the qualification with 91 and fired 95 in the second series. Scores of 90, 94 were followed by another 95, including four 10s, in the fifth series that propelled him to the fourth position at the completion of the series. However, Rai botched things up completely in the final series that included two eights, which left him way behind in the pecking order. Not his usual self, a final effort of 10 was not enough for Rai to avoid elimination in his first Olympics. Three-time gold Olympic gold medalist and defending champion Jin Jong-oh however was unaffected by the wind as he topped the qualification round with 567. He finished his 60 qualifying shots more than five minutes before the warning and never looked in trouble, but Rai said he was done in by the lack of experience. “Now I get the knowledge of an Olympic event. I can start preparing accordingly. I want to utilise this knowledge ahead,” Rai said. “You can’t say in shooting… You may go up and down. It’s a mental game and not a physical game unlike others.” He said he would have to start afresh and look ahead. “I should not lose heart and look ahead. I will practice hard and keep fighting.” Earlier, on Sunday, a poor start start cost Rai as he was the first one to be eliminated in the final of 10-metre air pistol event