The Hindu : Sport : Shooters hit bull's-eye

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

Sport

Sport

Shooters hit bull's-eye

— Photo: AP

RIGHT ON TARGET: It is celebration time for Indian shooters who had a field day in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Friday, winning three gold medals and one silver. Bottom row: Saroja Kumari Jhuthu, Sushma Rana, Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu. Top row: Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung, Abhinav Bindra and Vivek Singh.

Melbourne: If India's day one campaign in the 18th Commonwealth Games belonged to the lifters, shooters hit the bull's eye on day two, bagging three gold and one silver medal and promising much more. India now has four gold and three silver medals from the Games so far.

Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang shot down the first gold medal of the day in the men's 10m air rifle pairs, shattering the existing Games record by a huge five-point margin. They tallied 1189 for a new record. Their women counterparts, Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu, also grabbed the yellow metal aggregating 791 at the Wellsford Rifle Range at Bendigo.

Third gold

Saroja Kumari Jhuthu and Sushma Rana repeated their air rifle mates' performance in the women's 50m air pistol pair event claiming the third gold medal with an overall score of 1140.

Samresh Jung and Vivek Singh bagged the silver medal amassing 1082 points in the men's 50m pistol pair event at the Melbourne International Shooting Club.

Bindra and Narang fired excellent individual scores of 591 and 598 respectively ahead of Bangladesh's Mohammad Asif Hossain Khan and Anjan Singha, who scored 1181. Bindra and Narang erased the Games record of 1184 set by Bindra himself in the company of Sameer Ambekar at Manchester in 2002. The bronze went to the Singapore duo of Ong Jun Hong and Zhang Jin who finished with 1177.

But Jung's chances of taking home eight gold medals fell on the first day of the event as his partner Vivek Singh and he had to settle for the silver with the individual scores of 547 and 535 respectively.

The Australian pair of David Moore and Daniel Repacholi dethroned defending champions Jung and Singh by four points, finishing with 1086 against the Indians' tally of 1082.

Uncertain form

Jung, the hot favourite in pistol events, lost out on the gold due to his partner's uncertain form who mostly scored in 80s. England won the bronze medal through Nick Baxter and Mick Gault who fired 1078.

"This silver gives me mixed feelings — dejected not to have won a gold but hopeful that I can still win medals in all eight events," he said.

"It may not be a gold every time, but I know I can do it."

In the women's events, new faces in Tejaswini and Avneet lived up to the expectations as they shot 395 and 396 for the top honours.

Tejaswini was picked ahead of Manchester Games gold medallist Anjali Bhagwat, who will be seen in action only in the women's three position event this time around.

The Canadian duo of Monica Fyfe (391) and Cynthia Hamulas (390) won the silver pipping Singaporeans Yu Zxen Vanessa Yong (390) and Jingna Zhang (391) in a tie-breaker after shooting equal scores of 781.

Dream debut

Jhuthu and Rana, making a debut in the Games, finished six points ahead of their Australian counterparts Pamela Mckenzie/Lalita Yauhleuskaya 1134 (564 + 569), who won the silver while Canada Avianna Chao/Kim Eagles 1130 (556 + 574) won the bronze.

The men's trap shooters lost the bronze medal on a countback. Isle of Man's Trevor Charles Boyles and David Robert Walton (183) beat India's Manavjit Singh and Mansher Singh, on countback for the bronze.

The Isle of Man shooters shot 46 out of 50 in their last set, while the Indians shot 45 out of 50. — PTI, UNI, AP

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