The Hindu : Indians off target

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 19, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Indians off target

NEW DELHI APRIL 18. Ronak Pandit failed to present himself a surprise package two days before his 17th birthday, as he struggled to capture his form in rapid fire pistol in the shooting World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

Competing against some of the best shooters in the world, the Mumbai lad shot a 281 this day, as against his 286 in the first series.

His 567 was three short of his recent score of 570 shot during the national championship in Indore, when he won both the men's and junior gold.

Maybe, the exposure on the European circuit, when he was forced to focus only on air events, had took the sting away from his preparation, especially when it came to the four-second series.

Yet, Ronak gave a good account of himself in finishing ninth, and should be geared up for the second World Cup in Shanghai next week.

In the men's 3-position event, there was nothing much to cheer for the Indian camp as A.B. Subbaiah, Ashok Kumar Shahi and Abhijeet Konduskar had scores of 1147, 1135 and 1134 respectively, as they took the 32nd to 46th positions.

Charan Singh had done well, while shooting for MQS, the previous day with a 1162, which would have fetched him a top-15 position in the main stream in a strong field of 50-odd shooters.

The results:

Men's 25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Emil Milev (Bul) 690.3 (589), 2. Iulian Raicea (Rom) 686.5 (587), 3. Sergei Alifirenko (Rus) 684.4 (585), 9. Ronak Pandit 567.

50m free rifle 3-position: 1. Konstanti Prikhodtchenko (Rus) 1275.2 (1176), 2. Rajmond Debevec (Slo) 1271.8 (1172), 3. Tomas Jerabek (Cze) 1270.7, (1172); 32T. A.B. Subbaiah 1147; 44T Ashok Kumar Shahi 1135; 46. Abhijeet Konduskar 1134.

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