Sport - Shooting   

Rana bounces back with a sterling show

By A. Joseph Antony

Jaspal Rana, who equalled the Asian Games record while winning the men's 25 metre standard pistol event at the 47th National shooting championship in Hyderabad on Thursday — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD Dec. 11. Jaspal Rana was without doubt down on Wednesday but certainly not out as he bounced back on Thursday to top the men's 25 metre standard pistol event of the National shooting championships at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh range.

"My focus was far better today,'' the ace marksman said after he equalled the Asian Games record score of 579. "I was more comfortable with the pistol,'' he said, in comparison to the problems he faced in the centre fire on Wednesday.

Rana attributed it to a combination of factors. "I wasn't fully familiar with the grip of the weapon and the sight, which had been replaced on the eve of the competition. Similarly a gym workout hadn't helped much either.''

He, however, was a man transformed on Thursday, at his blazing best in the 20 and 10 seconds series, where the rest of the field tends to falter.

Not far behind his ponytail was national coach, Prof. Sunny Thomas, urging him not to take his eyes off the sight and trigger. Also enabling his climb back to the top was a sea change in attitude. "I was a lot more positive today,'' he added.

The results:

Men: 25 m standard pistol: 1. Jaspal Rana 579 [191 + 195 + 193] (ONGC), 2. Samresh Jung 567 [194 + 192 + 181] (CISF), 3. Naresh Kumar (BSF) 563 [194 + 186 + 183].

Team championships: 1. Maharashtra 1653 (Ronak Pandit, Ashok Pandit, Amol Chauhan), 2. Navy 1649 (Harpreet Singh, Lokpal Singh and Atul Yadav), 3. BSF 1648 (Naresh Kumar, Poonam Kumar, Manjunath).

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