The Hindu : Sport : Indian aspirations suffer a setback

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Sunday, Dec 03, 2006
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Sport

Indian aspirations suffer a setback

Kamesh Srinivasan

HOPES BELIED: Gagan Narang failed to deliver at the crunch as he finished fifth in the men's 10-metre air rifle individual event. — PHOTO: AFP

DOHA: The Indian aspirations of a golden start suffered a setback as the shooters managed to return only two team bronze medals at the Lusail Range in the 15th Asian Games here on Saturday.

The men's and women's 10-metre air rifle teams won the medals, but it was a case of missed chances as the silver eluded the men by one point, and the women lost it by two points to Singapore. Yet, it was an impressive fare considering that the third shooters, Navnath Faratade and Suma Shirur in the men's and women's sections respectively grappled with indifferent form.

Familiar story

In the absence of World champion Abhinav Bindra, it was a familiar story for India. Gagan Narang's hopes of an individual medal after he had made the final as No.3 were dashed as the three Chinese apart from Korean Jaechul Yu proved much stronger in the end.

After shooting 99, 100, 99, 99, 98 and 100 in the preliminary phase, Gagan returned a series of 10.1, 10.1, 9.9, 10.2, 9.9, 10.4, 10.6, 10, 10.2 and 10 which proved inadequate.

In fact, Zhu Qinan who was one point behind Gagan at 594, shot the best in the final with a 104.3 to rocket to the second spot from fifth. It was the first big gold medal for the 24-year-old Liu Tianyou, who maintained his supremacy throughout, to live up to his stature as he had finished runner-up in the World Cup Finals at Grenada.

P.T. Raghunath did well to make the final in a strong field of 51 shooters, but could not improve his position from the eighth slot.

Earlier, the World junior champion, Navnath Faratade's below par 589 out of 600 pushed the team to the bronze medal, one point behind Korea.

Faratade had shot a 596 in winning the World title at Zagreb, and was expected to shoot at least above 590 here. He shot a 95 out of 100 in the last card that spoilt his score. Similarly, the Indian women could not assert themselves in the absence of Anjali Bhagwat who has been selected to shoot only the 50-metre events.

Suma Shirur started well with a 199 out of 200, but a third card of 94 spoilt her chances. But she shot well enough eventually to get the bronze for the team. Avneet Kaur Sidhu and Tejaswini Sawant were unable to repeat their Commonwealth Games efforts. The gold went to the reigning Olympic and World champion Du Li, even as China swept the three medals. The Chinese may have swept the first three positions in women's air rifle, but the uninitiated had a shock to find the fourth placed Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan being presented with the bronze at the medals ceremony.

It was clarified that as per the Asian Games rules for shooting, only two athletes from a country can be awarded medals in one event.

At the trap range, the inclement weather and the windy conditions played havoc with the speed, flight and trajectory of the birds, making it difficult for the marksmen.

Manavjit Singh leads

Yet, World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu asserted his class as he led with a 70 out of 75 along with Naser Meqlad of Kuwait. Manavjit had rounds of 23, 23 and 24.

The Indian team led the field with 197 points, one ahead of Kuwait.

The results: Men's air rifle 10 metre: 1. Liu Tianyou (Chn) 700.8 (598), 2. Zhu Qinan (Chn) 698.3 (594), 3. Jaechul Yu (Kor) 697.9 (596), 5. Gagan Narang 696.4 (595), 8. P.T. Raghunath 693.9 (592), 13. Navnath Faratade 589.

Team: 1. China 1786, 2. Korea 1777, 3. India 1776.

Women's air rifle 10 metre: 1. Du Li (Chn) 501.4 (398), 2. Zhao Yinghui (Chn) 501.0 (397), 3. Wu Liuxi (Chn) 500.4 (397), 5. Avneet Kaur Sidhu 498.6 (396), 8. Teaswini Sawant 597.1 (395), 24. Suma Shirur 390.

Team: 1.China 1192, 2. Singapore 1183, 3. India 1181.

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