India’s first woman world champion in shooting, Tejaswini Sawant, surprisingly drew a blank in the Asian Games as she failed to even qualify for the finals of the 50m rifle prone event at the Aoti Range here on Monday.
Sawant finished 11th with a score of 588 in the 50m rifle prone qualifiers, way below the top score of 595 notched up by eventual gold medallist Chengyi Wang of China.
Sawant had won a gold in this event at the World Championships in Munich earlier this year. In the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Sawant won silver in women’s 50m rifle prone singles and bronze in women’s 50m rifle prone pairs (along with Meena Kumari).
Sawant’s compatriots were no better with Meena (586) finishing 14th and Lajja Gauswami ending on the 16th spot with a score of 585.
The trio did not do too well in the 50 rifle prone team event as well and signed off fifth with a score of 1759.
The disappointment continued for India in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event with the team of Rahul, Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar finishing fourth with a total of 1711. The three could not make an impact in the individual event as well.
