The Hindu : Sport / Shooting : Gagan 25th

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Friday, Apr 24, 2009
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Gagan 25th

NEW DELHI: Gagan Narang had to settle for the 25th place with a 1163 out of 1200 in the men’s free-rifle 3-position event in the shooting World Cup in Beijing on Thursday.

Though it was a disappointment for Gagan after he had won the gold in the last World Cup in Changwon, Korea, he did not have much reason to worry as his score was just three points less than what was good enough to fetch him the gold. He had shot 1166 in Korea.

In fact, an improved field and high scores sidelined all the Indian shooters in the rigorous event, as even a 1169 was not good enough to fetch a berth in the final.

Actually, three shooters with 1169 had to sit out following a shoot-off for the last spot in the final.

Gagan started very well with a 398 out of 400 in prone, but scores of 382 and 383 in standing and kneeling put paid to his aspirations of making the final.

Sanjeev does better

In fact, Sanjeev Rajput did a shade better with a 1165 that fetched him the 20th position.

However, it was an improved performance from the Indian team this time, as the 19-year-old Heena Sidhu won the women’s air pistol silver and Vijay Kumar took the men’s 25-metre rapidfire pistol silver, a mere 0.1 point behind the champion.

In the last World Cup in Changwon, only Gagan was among the medals, as he got the air rifle bronze apart from the 3-position gold.

The results:

Men: 50m free rifle 3-position: 1. Ole Magnus Bakken (Nor) 1276.7 (1179); 2. Rajmond Debevec (Slo) 1275.9 (1180); 3. Stevan Pletikosic (Srb) 1271.4 (1173); 20. Sanjeev Rajput 1165; 25. Gagan Narang 1163; 43. Sushil Ghalay 1149. MQS: Surendra Singh Rathod 1157; Imran Hasan Khan 1148.

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