Rio de Janeiro: Pistol shooter Jitu Rai raised hopes of winning India's first medal in the 2016 Olympics when he reached the 10m air pistol final after finishing sixth in the qualifying stage, here on Saturday. But the hopes were dashed when he finished last in the final, with a paltry score of 78.7.

The gold was won by Vietnam's Hoang Xuan Vinh (182.6) while hosts Brazil's Felipe Almeida Wu won the silver with a score of 181.8.

The other Indian to impress on Saturday was rower Dattu Bhokanal, who qualified for the quarter finals of the single sculls event with a third-place finish in the heats. His quarter final round will be held on Tuesday.

Dattu's performance was a huge boost considering the fact that a controversy broke out only a few days before the Olympics, which was enough for the rower to lose his focus. While his employers sent him to the US for advanced training on the eve of the big show, some of the officials in the federation was not happy with the move. They reportedly made no secret of their feeling putting the talented athlete in an awkward position.

In shooting, Jitu, a gold medal winner in the Asian Games, scored 580, including 22 10s, after posting rounds of 96, 96, 98, 96, 96, 98. However, another Indian shooter in the fray, Gurpreet Singh, finished 20th to miss the finals berth with a score of 576.

Chinese Pang Wei topped the qualifying stage with a score of 590 with 27 10s, while South Korean Jin Jongoh finished second with a score of 584 with 24 10s.

Slovakian Juraj Tuzinsky claimed the third spot with a score of 582 with 23 10s. The finals will take place later in the day.

Earlier, women shooters Ayonika Paul and Apurvi Chandela had a forgetful debut at the Games following an early exit with a disappointing qualification round performance in the 10m air rifle event.

Both the Olympic debutants failed to qualify for the final rounds. The 23-year-old Chandela scored 411.6 points to finish on a lowly 34th position, while Paul could only manage to score 403.0 points to finish further down the rankings at a disappointing 47th spot in the qualification round.

In table tennis, India's Mouma Das and debutant Manika Batra lost in the first round of the women's singles. World No.150 Mouma failed to put up a fight against World No. 58 Romania's Daniela Dodean Monteiro, as the Indian went down 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11.

This was Mouma's second Olympic appearance after her debut in Athens 12 years ago. As a veteran paddler, Mouma was expected to put up a strong fight, but all hopes were dashed after her rather unimpressive loss against Daniela.

Olympic debutant Manika gave a good fight, but went down 2-4 to a superior 60th-ranked Katarzyna Franc-Grzybowska of Poland. Manika lost 12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14, but impressed with her performance as a first timer.

In rowing, the top three finishers from the six rounds of heats make it directly to the quarter-finals. Bhokanal finds himself placed 15th among the 18 rowers who have made the quarters.

Featuring in the first heat of the day which kicked off the Games action, Dattu finished the 2000m race with a timing of 7:21.67s. For the first 500m, the 25 year-old rower from Maharashtra was in second position. He finished behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba (7:06.89s) and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27s).

Bhokanal was in second position for the first 500m of the race but started to lag behind once Carlos in lane 2 picked up his pace around the 700m mark.

The 25 year-old rower from Maharashtra qualified for the Olympics with a silver medal at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic qualification.