Thaindian News

By Abhishek Roy
New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) India’s Harpreet Singh won the gold in the men’s 25 metres centre fire pistol event while the silver went to Vijay Kumar after a four-way dramatic shoot-off while former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu trapped the bronze to round off another successful day for hosts at the range at the Commonwealth Games here Sunday.

After Sunday’s performance, the tally of Indian shooters went up to 13 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals.

Navyman Harpreet shot a total of 580 to win his second gold, though he fell three points short of the Games record of 583 set by another Indian Jaspal Rana at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. Vijay, who is with the Army, and Harpreet had won the gold in the pairs’ event as well.

After the final round, Vijay, Singapore’s Lip Meng Poh, England’s Michael Gault and Australia’s Michaelangelo Giustiniano were tied for the second spot with a score of 574.

What followed was high drama as the four-way shoot-off got underway to determine the silver medallist. Shooters took five shots, and Vijay won the silver with 49 points. Lip Meng got the bronze with a score of 48.

In the shoot-off, Giustiniano,58, the oldest member of the Australian contingent, did a rare mistake by shooting the target of Meng, who was stationed next to him. With no points, the Australian finished fifth.

There was confusion after the shoot-out and finally Vijay was declared the silver winner.

Veteran English shooter Gault did not take the third shot as his second strayed away and it was impossible to make a podium finish. He had just 17 points from three shots and finished fourth.

In the men’s trap, England’s Aaron Heading won the gold with a final score of 147 (123 qualifying, 24 final) and the silver went to Australia’s double Olympic champion Michael Diamond, world no.8, with a total score of 146 (122 qualifying, 24 final).

Heading also broke the Games record that was jointly held by Manavjit, New Zealand’s Graeme Ede and Great Britain’s David John Beattie.

Manavjit was on top after the qualification round with a score of 123. In the final, he was tied for the third place with Australia’s Adam Vella, bronze medallist in the 2004 Athens Olympics, with a score of 144.

In the shoot-off, world no.5 Vella missed his second shot while Manavjit found the target to win the bronze. Another Indian in the fray, Mansher Singh finished sixth with a total score of 137. Mansher and Manvjit had won the pairs trap silver.

In the women’s 10 metre air rifle individual event, Singapore’s Xiang Wei Jasmine won the gold with a final Games record of 501.7 points after equalling the Games record of 398 in the qualification round.

Malaysian girls Nur Ayuni Halim (497.5) and Nur Suryani Taibi Mohamed (496.9) won the silver and bronze.

India’s Shuma Shirur Siddharth (495.4) and Kavitha Yadav (495.1) finished fourth and fifth.