The Hindu : Sport / Shooting : India draws a blank

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Tuesday, Nov 16, 2010
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Sport - Shooting

India draws a blank

Kamesh Srinivasan

GUANGZHOU: Rahul Panwar stood out on a depressing day for the Indian shooters, but luck was not on his side as well, as the team drew a blank from three events in the Asian Games here on Monday.

The Indian shooters faced a situation of collective failure, as Gagan Narang, Hariom Singh, Vijay Kumar and Tejaswini Sawant failed to strike their normal form.

First, the tragic story of Rahul Panwar, who had four rounds of 99 in the 8-second and 6-second series in the men's 25-metre rapid fire pistol competition.

He had the misfortune of finding his trigger going off too early as he raised the pistol for the 4-second series in stage one, with the shot hitting the ground and costing him 10 points. India was seven points short of the bronze medal.

Panwar still managed to put up a score of 571, despite rounds of 84 and 91 in the 4-second series. For the form that he showed, he deserved to be in the final, as Li Yuehong of China won the gold following a 583 in the qualification.

Woefully off-colour

However, the strongest shooter in the event, Vijay Kumar, who had managed to win an individual bronze in air pistol on Sunday, was woefully off- colour and ended up with a total of 568, following rounds of 91 and 86 in the 4-second series.

Vijay Kumar had grown in stature in the last four years, and had been shooting high scores to the tune of 588 at the Commonwealth level.

“It was a disastrous day for shooting in every event. There can't be any explanation to Vijay's score of 568. Of course, it was gloomy and cloudy, but that was for everyone,” said national coach Prof. Sunny Thomas, unable to stomach the slide.

The coach said that even if any one of the nine shooters had touched their normal form, there would have been at least team medals.

Gagan Narang who has a best of 599 in prone in international competition shot 587, as he was brought down by a card of 95. Olympic quota place winner, Hariom Singh could muster only 590. He missed the final by two points and finished 13th.

The Indian team was placed fifth, eight points short of the bronze medal.

A dull Tejaswini

World champion and world record holder Tejaswini could not shine either. She shot 588, following a sequence of 97, 100, 99, 98, 97, 97 to be placed 11th. The women's team was placed fifth, but was just one point short of the bronze medal winning China.

Prof. Thomas said that it was tough for the shooters to stay in peak form at the end of a long season, and expressed his concern about the team pulling together for the remaining events.

“The shooters went back to training and were practising for the 3-position events. Let us hope that they recover good form for the events ahead,” said Prof. Thomas.

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