Gold Coast: London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang won a silver while Swapnil Kusale and Annu Raj Singh bagged a bronze each, as India continued their strong showing at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships here Thursday.
Narang finished second on the podium in the men’s 50m rifle prone event and youngster Swapnil won bronze in the same event. In the final, Narang shot 246.3 points to end just 1.4 points adrift leader Australian Dane Sampson (247.7) and settled for second place.
The experienced Annu Raj Singh secured the women’s 25m pistol bronze.
On day three of the competitions here, India’s medal hunt started when both Narang and Swapnil qualified for the eight-man finals. Narang scored 617.6 after 60 shots while Swapnil outshone his decorated team-mate with a score of 619.1.
In the final, Swapnil was again the stronger to start with, briefly leading after the 10th shot, while Dane steered clear of the field after the 18th shot in the 24-shot final.
Narang and Swapnil continued to fight for the second and third places, before the former clinched it with his 22nd shot.
“It was a very windy day and I had to dig deep. It was a test of my patience as I had to release my shots at the right time,” Narang, the 2010 CWG gold medallist said.
“It was a test event for the Commonwealth Games next year and one of the things to test was the wind conditions and I did just that. The final score still can be better and I know that I need to put in some more work in that direction,” he added.
In the women’s 25m pistol event, Heena Sidhu was among the three Indians who qualified for the final. Annu, however, was the best-placed Indian in qualifying with a score of 578. Teammate Rahi Sarnobat had the same score but finished third in qualifying on countback. Heena qualified in fifth place shooting 571.
In the final, Annu called on all her experience to start the strongest in the field with a pair of perfect 5s in the first two five-shot series.
However, the Australian pair of Lalita Yauhleuskaya and Elena Galiabovitch were strong throughout to finish 1-2 with scores of 35 and 32 after the 10th and final series. Anu got the bronze with 28 points. Heena (21) finished fifth while Rahi (17) was sixth.
India have so far accumulated 10 medals in rifle and pistol from the Commonwealth Shooting Championships.
Press trust of India
