The Hindu : Sport : Samaresh on top of the podium again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006

Sport

Sport

Samaresh on top of the podium again

— Photo: AP

GOLDEN SPREE: Samaresh Jung claimed his fourth gold of the Games, winning the men's 50m pistol event.

Melbourne: Samaresh Jung was on the verge of becoming the highest gold medal winner in the Commonwealth Games here after winning his fourth gold in the 50m pistol event, while Gagan Narang set up a new Games record on way to the 10m air rifle gold here on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old Samaresh, who has been unstoppable, has three more events to go. He has won a silver apart from the four gold medals. Compatriot Gagan Narang has bagged three golds so far.

Abhinav Bindra too joined the party, claiming a bronze in the 10m air rifle event. India has won 11 gold, four silver and a bronze medal in shooting so far.

In 50m pistol, Samaresh and Vivek Singh qualified for the final with scores of 554 and 545 respectively.

Samaresh had a tough rival in pre-tournament favourite Mick Gault. However, the CISF officer beat him to the gold. Samaresh had an impressive series — 90, 95, 91, 91, 93, 94 — in the preliminaries, while Vivek was erratic and had scores of 92, 89, 89, 92, 94, 89.

The two Indians made the cut, along with six others, from a field of 21 shooters.

Vivek misses bronze

In the final, Samaresh totalled 96.2 to take his tally to 650.2 (554+96.2), enough to give him the gold.

Vivek shot 93.6 in the final, but his poor preliminary round score pulled him down to the fourth place with 638.6. He missed the bronze by a whisker to Trinidad & Tobago's Roger Daniel who had 638.9. Gault won the silver with 645.9 (552+93.9).

``It is absolutely fantastic to be on the podium for the fifth day in a row and to hear the national anthem for the fourth time,'' Samaresh said. He, however, sympathised with Vivek. ``He should have won the medal. He shot well but was a bit unlucky.''

In 10m rifle, Gagan not only created a Games record in the preliminary round but also a final Games record.

Gagan had 597 in the preliminary round with a series of 100, 100, 100, 100, 98 and 99. Team-mate Abhinav shot 594 (99, 99, 100, 100, 97, 99) and they qualified for the final, with six others, from a field of 27 shooters.

In a tense final, Gagan was in sublime form. He shot an amazing 101.9 to pip Jin Zhang of Singapre. Zhang finished with an identical score in this round but had two points less than Gagan in the preliminary round (595). Abhinav (695.5) took the bronze with a 101.5 in the final.

In men's trap, India's Manavjit Singh Sandhu (49) was tied for the top spot with Australian Michael Diamond after the end of the first day, while Mansher Singh was joint seventh among 41 shooters.

Both Diamond and Manavjit had scores of 24 and 25 at the end of two rounds, while Mansher's 46 included a 22 in the first round and 24 in the second.

Sushma, Saroja disappoint

The women shooters, Sushma Rana and Saroja Kumari, came fourth and sixth respectively in the 25m pistol event, which was won by Australian Lalita Yauhleuskaya with a new Games record of 781.5 (582, 199.5).

Sushma shot 771.9 for the fourth spot. She had a 573 in the preliminary round and 198.9 in the final. Saroja had a total of 763.8 (568+195.8). — UNI

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