Asian Games shooting: Ronjan breaks India’s gold jinx, bronze for double trap team (Lead)
November 21st, 2010 - 6:55 pm ICT by IANSGuangzhou, Nov 21 (IANS) Shooter Ronjan Singh Sodhi Sunday finally ended India’s gold medal drought from shooting by winning the double trap event and also helped the Indian team bag the bronze medal at the Asian Games here Sunday.
Sodhi won India’s third gold after cueist Pankaj Advani and rower Bajranj Lal Thakar. Sodhi, a double world record holder, was the only Indian to qualify for the final.
Sodhi shot 47 in the final for a total of 186. Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum of UAE won the silver with a total of 182 points (138+44) and the bronze went to Hamad Ali Al Marri (136+45) of Qatar in a shoot-off after three shooters were tied for a third place.
The Indian trio of Sodhi (139), junior World Champion Asher Noria (134) and Vikran Bhatnagar (130) shot a total of 403 to win the team bronze.
The team gold went to Chinese trio of Pan Qiang (143), Mo Junjie (136) and Hu Binyuan (135) with a total score of 414. IOC Kuwait settled for the silver medal with the trio of Fehaid Aldeehani (137), Hamad Alafasi (136) and Meshfi Almutairi (134) shooting a total of 407.
Sodhi said winning a gold in Asian Games is tough due to the presence of Chinese shooters and that made the final very tough.
“Finals are always a different ball game. And today it was very different ball game. People start missing and that happened today,” he said.
“Double trap competition in Asia is always difficult. Today the weather conditions were also difficult and shooters were missing lot of targets,” said Sodhi, a two-time World Cup champion.
More that Sodhi, it was national coach Sunny Thomas looked visibly relieved.
“I can finally take a sigh of relief. Sodhi has broken the jinx and got us the gold medal. It’s the perfect gift Sodhi has given on Guru Nanak’s birthday today,” said Thomas who will step down from his post after 17 years in the job.
China have won 19 of the 40 shooting gold medals decided so far in the 44-event shooting competition. South Korea are second with 13 golds, North Korea third with three and Kuwait have two. Kazakhstan, Japan and India have one gold medals each.
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Tags: al maktoum, al marri, alafasi, asian games, bhatnagar, double trap, gold medals, guru nanak, junior world champion, junjie, medal drought, national coach, pankaj advani, sodhi, team bronze, team gold, thakar, trap team, weather conditions, world cup champion