The Hindu : Gagan Narang finishes fifth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 03, 2004

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Gagan Narang finishes fifth

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2. Afro-Asian Games champions are hardly remembered. Gagan Narang came up with an impressive fare in the men's air rifle event in shooting World Cup in Sydney to ensure that he would not be forgotten in a hurry.

The 20-year-old Hyderabad lad who had qualified for the Athens Olympics with a creditable effort in the recent Asian Championship in Kuala Lumpur, shot the best among the eight finalists with a 103.9 to finish fifth, while the better known Abhinav Bindra finished ninth despite having shot a 593 like Gagan in the qualifying series.

Gagan's last card of 99, in a series of 98, 99, 97, 100, 100 and 99 got him a berth in the final, while Abhinav, with a 99, 98, 100, 100, 100 and 96 failed to make the final because of the poor last card.

After having started the final in the seventh position, Gagan came up with an all-10 sequence of 10.1, 10.4, 10.4, 10.0, 10.5, 10.3, 10.4, 10.8, 10.3 and 10.7 to take the fifth spot with a 696.9, ahead of Christian Planer of Austria who had shot a 597 in leading the eight finalists.

As it turned out, Gagan missed a medal by 0.5 points, as Artur Aivazian of Ukraine took the bronze with a 697.4. Jozef Gonci of Slovakia and Peter Sidi of Hungary took the gold and silver with 698.7 and 698.3 respectively.

Sandeep Tarate shot a 100, 98, 97, 97, 99 and 99 for a 590 that placed him joint 17th among 50 shooters.

There was not much cheer for the Indian camp from the trap ranges. Anwer Sultan who had missed the bus behind Mansher Singh and Manavjit Singh Sandhu for an Olympic berth, shot the best among the Indian trap shooters, with a 114 that placed him joint ninth along with two-time Olympic champion Michael Diamond of Australia.

While Anwer shot a 25, 22, 21, 24, 22, Manav and Mansher shot 113 and 110 respectively, in taking the joint 13th and joint 23rd positions. Manav had a series of 23, 24, 21, 21 and 24 while Mansher came up with a 24, 21, 20, 21 and 24 that was much below his season's best of 121 out of 125 compiled on way to the gold in Kuala Lumpur.

Ranajit Nobis shot a 92 in taking the 37th place from among 40 shooters. Oguzhan Tuzun of Turkey won the gold with a 144 out of 150, while Massimiliano Mola of Italy and Petri Nummela of Finland won the silver and bronze with a 139 each. The Italian won the tie-shoot 1-0 against the Finn.

In freepistol, Vivek Singh shot a 553 and missed the final by two points, and finished joint 11th. He had a sequence of 91, 95, 94, 92, 87 and 94. A six out of ten in the fifth series put paid to his hopes of making the final.

Samaresh Jung was joint 22nd with a 545 and Ronak Pandit was joint 28th with a 540, in a field of 39 shooters.

Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic made light of a 4-point deficit before the final to win the gold by an impressive 3.5 point margin, ahead of Xinglong Shi of China. Tenk had a 567 in the preliminary phase and a 99.0 in the final for a 666.0. Daniel Repacholi of Australia won the bronze with a 657.7.

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