The Hindu : Palangappa silences his rivals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 11, 2003

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Palangappa silences his rivals

By A. Joseph Antony

Amry's Mahavir Singh, who won the 25m men's centre fire pistol. — Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

HYDERABAD Dec. 10 . Hoots of derision greeted Thambukthira Chengappa Palangappa's 9.7 score in the first shot of the men's 50 metre rifle prone final of the National shooting championships at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh range here on Wednesday.

As if to silence those sailors who ridiculed him, he grabbed the gauntlet and responded with a 10.8 in the next. The Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Subedar slipped up once more, sinking to 9.7, while arch rival Satguru Das of Indian Navy never descended below 10.

The Army-Navy rivalry was pronounced as Palangappa maintained a wafer thin 0.6 point lead until the penultimate shot. In the decider he came up with a sparkling 10.6 to take the title.

"I was confident all along that I would win,'' said Palangappa, a native of Madikere in Coorg. The 10 plus scores in the sighters was enough indication of his fine touch.

In a duel between a fan and his idol, Mahavir Singh Shekawat got the better of Jaspal Rana after the 25 metre centre fire pistol final found the duo deadlocked at 579. In the post-final face-off, Rana tallied 136/150, while Shekawat had 141/150.

"I was nervous,'' said Rana, who had problems with his vision too. "In slow fire competition, my sight was blurred particularly in one series, in which I lost six points,'' he said.

The results: Pistol events: 25m centre fire: 1. Mahavir Singh (Army) 579, 2. Jaspal Rana (ONGC) 579, 3. Viraj Singh (ITBP) 578. Team championships: Army (Mahavir Singh, C.K. Chaudhary, Ved Prakash) 1712-gold, Maharashtra (Ronak Pandit, Ashok Pandit, Amol S. Chauhan) 1709-silver, Navy (Satendra Kumar, Harpreet Singh, Lokpal Singh) 1695-bronze.

Civilians: 1. Abhishek Vashist 557 (BSF), 2. Raj Khalid 557 (Mah), 3. Tushinder Singh 553 (IA).

Juniors: 1. Ronak Pandit 577 (Mah), 2. Kushal Kumar 562 (Army), 3. Rahul Panwar 561 (Navy).

Rifle: 50m prone: 1. T.C. Palangappa 694.2 (Army), 2. Satguru Das 693.4 (Navy), 3. Sushil Ghale 692.9 (Army).

Team championships: Army (Sushil Ghale, T.C. Palangappa, A.P. Subbaiah) 1767-gold, BSF (M.T. Sutar, M. Shankar, Hanumana Ram) 1742-silver, 3. Navy (Sanjeev Rajput, Sudhakar Kakade, Satguru Das) 1740-bronze.

Civilians: 1. Arun Wareshi 587 2. Pankaj Poddar 583 3. Joydeep Karmarkar 582 (all RSPB).

Juniors: 1. Subhash Kumar 580 2. Vipan Kumar 579 3. Raswinder Singh 576 (all Army).

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