Melbourne, March 17
Indian shooters fired on target on the opening day of the event clinching three gold and one silver medal from the five pair events at the 18th Commonwealth Games here today.
Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra won the gold in the men’s 10m air rifle pairs event, in the process setting a new games record with a total of 1189.
Their women counterparts Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu also grabbed the yellow metal aggregating 791 at the Wellsford Rifle Range at Bendigo.
Debutante Saroja Kumari Jhuthu and Sushma Rana emulated their air rifle mates’ performance in the women’s 25m 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 Melbourne International Shooting Club.
However, Manavjit Singh and Mansher Singh were the only Indian pair to have missed a medal when they lost the bronze going down by just one point in a tie-breaker of the men’s trap event.
The Indian duo, which tied with Isle of Man’s Trevor Boyles and David Walton with 183 points in the finals, ended up fourth at the Melbourne Gun Club.
Walton had shot a 24 out of 25 in the last card while his partner Trevor Charles Boyles had returned a 23, which were same as Manavjit and Masher’s final round scores.
Manavjit, paired with Anwer Sultan, was placed fifth in the 2002 Manchester Games.
Narang and Bindra fired excellent individual scores of 591 and 598, respectively, ahead of Bangladesh’s Mohammad Asif Hossain Khan and Anjan Singha, who scored 1181. They culled 1189 points eclipsing the games record of 1184 set by Bindra himself in Sameer Ambekar’s company in Manchester four years ago. The bronze went to the Singapore duo of Ong Jun Hong and Zhang Jin who finished with 1177.
Narang fired four perfect rounds of 100 and scored 99 in the remaining two while Bindra carded one 100, two 99s, two 98s and a 97. Narang said he hoped to maintain this form in the coming International events, especially the upcoming World Cup. “I hope to maintain the form to gain an Olympic quota place (China 2008),” he said.
Bindra said: “I am disappointed but happy that our team won the gold. I hope to improve upon my scoring rate.”
Jung’s chances of taking home eight gold fell on the first day of the event as his partner Vivek Singh and he had to settle for the silver returning individual scores of 547 and 535, respectively.
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.Jung, the hot favourite in pistol events, lost the gold due to his partner’s erratic form. Vivek Singh mostly scored in 80s.
England bagged the bronze through Nick Baxter and Mick Gault who fired 1078.
In the women’s events, new faces in Tejaswini and Avneet lived up to the expectations as they shot 395 and 396, respectively, for the top honours.
Tejaswini was picked ahead of Manchester Games gold medallist Anjali Bhagwat, who would be seen in action only in women’s three-position event this time around.
Youngster Avneet started with a superb perfect 100 and then had two 99s and a 98 while Tejaswini was a shade below with a total of 395 (98-98-100-99).
Canadian duo of Monica Fyfe (391) and Cylthia 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.
Jhuthu and Rana finished six points ahead of their Australian counterparts Pamela Mckenzie/Lalita Yauhleuskaya 1134 (564+569), who won the silver while Canada’s Avianna Chao/Kim Eagles 1130 (556+574) clinched the bronze.
— PTI
