The Hindu : Fariduddin gets it right this time

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Fariduddin gets it right this time

By K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Fariduddin, winner of 50m Rifle three position event, at the National shooting championship in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: K.Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE Nov. 20. It was a day when the sun had a siesta and the clouds hung thick and low. Yet, Army sepoy Fariduddin sighted his target clear and bright to win the gold in the 50m rifle three position event.

Last year at Indore, he missed the gold with a shot in the final round striking the adjacent target! "Instead of getting gold, I lost 10 points and slipped to the seventh position,'' he said. And Fariduddin's blunder helped Navy's Bishnu Nag clinch gold.

However, today Fariduddin made amends and led Army's charge in the National shooting championship at the J.N. Radhakrishna Memorial Shooting Complex here on Wednesday. Army swept all three golds at stake in the 50m rifle three position National open event with Fariduddin's effort being the perfect finish.

Fariduddin did find initial resistance from his Army mates — A.P. Subbaiah and Dilip Sawant. However, he fired ahead in the final and topped with 1255, while Subbaiah (1248.2) and Dilip Sawant (1243.2) had to rest content with silver and bronze.

"I was keen to get gold here especially after last year's performance,'' said the 33-year old who works with the Infantry School at Mhow. The man from Fatehpur is a regular on the National circuit while international honours have proved elusive, but his gold medal winning effort today might well egg him on.

"This was his best ever score in the 50m three position event,'' said Rajiv Bhatia, secretary, National Rifle Association of India.

The Army's day out continued as the trio of Charan Singh, A.P. Subbaiah and T.C. Palangappa won the team gold at 3422, while BSF and Navy secured the second and third spots.

In the junior segment, the Army juggernaut rolled on and made it a one-two with Imran Hasan clinching gold and Rathod Surendra Singh bagging silver.

Army's fine results were emulated by Indian Railways in the civilian segment. Pankaj Poddar waved the Railway flag high by winning gold at 1110 in the 50m rifle three position event and also guiding his organisation to a team gold along with Shyamol Das and Nilesh Rane.

In the junior section, Kerala's U. Sibi secured the top spot and followed in the footsteps of his sister U. Sindhu, who won gold in the women's 50m rifle prone junior event.

A change of guard was ushered in by Samaresh Jung in the 10m air pistol event. Samaresh with 575 edged past Mahavir Singh's 574. The final results of the men's 10m air pistol event will be announced on Thursday.

The results:

Men: National open championship: 50m rifle three position: 1. Fariduddin (Army) 1255; 2. A.P. Subbaiah (Army) 1248.2; 3. Dilip Sawant (Army) 1243.2.

50m rifle three position team: 1. Army 3422 (Charan Singh 1129, T.C. Palangappa 1139, A.P. Subbaiah 1154); 2. BSF 3389 (Iqbal Ahmed 1123, M. Shankar 1128, Raj Kumar 1138); 3. Navy 3385 (Manoj Kumar 1117, Bishnu Nag 1134, P.T. Raghunath 1134).

50m rifle three position junior: 1. Imran Hasan (Army) 1129; 2. Rathod Surendra Singh (Army) 1124; 3. Sudhir Kumar Singh (Har) 1124.

National championship (restricted to civilians): 50m rifle three position: 1. Pankaj Poddar (Rly) 1110; 2. Shyamol Das (Rly) 1104; 3. Sandip Kundu (WB) 1095.

50m rifle three position team: 1. Railways 3285 (Shyamol Das 1104, Nilesh Rane 1071, Pankaj Poddar 1110); 2. Kerala 3218 (V. Prabudith 1064, A. Ameer Ali 1061, V. Vipindas 1093); 3. Himachal Pradesh 3217 (Rajesh Parmar 1072, Virender Singh Banshtu 1079, Dhirendra Pawar 1066).

50m rifle three position junior: 1. U. Sibi (Ker) 1067; 2. Shankar Gurung (Inf) 1040; 3. Th. Rajen Singh (Mani) 975.

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