The Hindu : Samaresh Jung misses quota place

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 03, 2003

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Samaresh Jung misses quota place

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 2. He had a 10.5 with his last shot in the final, but Samaresh Jung missed the Olympic quota place by 0.4 points and a medal by 0.1 point in the freepistol event of the shooting World Cup in Changwon, Korea, on Wednesday.

Incidentally, it was a day of heroics for the Indian team, as Abhinav Bindra, who had won the Olympic quota in the last World Cup in Munich, shot an impressive 103.2 in the final, yet missed the gold by 0.6 points and a medal by 0.1 point.

After missing the freepistol competition in the World Cup in Fort Benning, US, as his guns had been misplaced in transit, Samaresh had done well in the last two World Cups in Zagreb and Munich, in building up his competitive form.

He was in his elements in the final after a 556 in the preliminary phase on the opening day of competition in Korea, but a bad eighth shot of 7.7 cut his lead in the race for the elusive quota. With the last shot to go Dionissios Georgakopoulos of Greece enjoyed a two-point lead over Samaresh, but the latter's brave effort bridged the gap to 0.4 points, and the Greek walked away with the Olympic quota, despite a 8.9 last shot.

Incidentally, the Greeks, as the hosts, have 10 quota places reserved for them, one each in 10 of the 16 events of the shooting competition for the Athens Olympics. The effort of Samaresh was equally admirable, as he was placed eighth going into the final. With Jong Oh Jin of Korea at 563, Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic at 562, Xiaodong Wang of China at 561, Zoltan Papanitz of Hungary at 559, Kun Xu of China at 558 it was indeed a fascinating Indo-Greek duel, between two who had scored only a 556 in the preliminary phase. Samaresh had a sequence of 91, 90, 97, 91, 95 and 92 in the preliminary phase. In the final, he shot 8.6, 10.5, 9.5, 10.7, 10.0, 9.6, 10.3, 7.7, 9.9 and 10.5 for the second best total of 97.3.

Tenk won the gold at 656.2. The Greek took the silver at 653.7 following the best score of 97.7 in the final. Jin took the bronze despite a 90.4 in the final, with a total of 653.4.

Two other Indians in the field could not make much of an impact. Vivek Singh was joint 15th with a 550, following a series of 90, 92, 93, 92, 91 and 92. Ronak Pandit was joint 26th with a sequence of 87, 94, 85, 91, 92 and 92.

In air rifle, it was a brilliant fight by Abhinav Bindra, after he had conceded a three-point lead to Tevarit Majchacheeap of Thailand, who holds the world record of a perfect 600.

Ye Yao of China stole the show with a 103.8 in the final, and took the gold with a 699.8. The Thai took the silver at 699.6, following a 100.6 in the final, and another Chinese Zhiwei Liu took the bronze at 699.3 after a 101.3 in the final.

Abhinav had a sequence of 10.7, 9.9, 10.4, 10.1, 10.7, 10.3, 10, 9.9, 10.6 and 10.6 in the final. He had shot 99, 100, 99, 98, 100, 100 in the preliminary phase.

With the Asian shooting championship in Kuala Lumpur having been postponed to February next year, the World Cup Final will be the next challenge for Abhinav.

Samaresh, like most other Indian pistol and rifle shooters, will now have to wait for the last chance in the Asian Championship to get his quota place.

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