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Shooting
Bharat shoots to glory
By Kamesh Srinivasan
Army's Bharat Singh (right), Jaspreet Singh of Punjab (left) and Maharashtra's Sameer Ambekar wait for the official results of the 10m air rifle event in the National shooting championship at Indore on Friday. Bharat bagged the gold and Jaspreet took
INDORE, JAN. 11. Army's Bharat Singh clinched the gold in air rifle with a fine performance in the final, when he shot a 105.1, in the 45th National shooting championship at the Reoti range here on Friday.
In an electrifying atmosphere, with hundreds packing the hall and announcing their presence with vociferous cheering after every shot was announced, the 28-year-old Bharat, training in the Army School in Mhow, displayed his steely resolve in the 10-shot climax.
Lying fourth after the preliminary phase, with a 586, five points behind the leader Ashok Kumar Shahi, Bharat came up with a series of 10.8, 10.3, 10.7, 10.4, 10.9, 10.7, 9.7, 10.5, 10.4, 10.7 in the final to overwhelm the rest of the field.
Coming two days after Anjali Vedpathak's 105.8 in the women's air rifle final, Bharat's effort is a good augury for the sport and the Indian shooters as even the lesser known are mastering the art of shooting in difficult finals.
In fact, it was a terrific last shot from Bharat as he was tied for the first spot with Jaspreet Singh of Punjab after nine rounds. Bharat had a total of 691.1 to win by 0.7 points ahead of Jaspreet, a Mechanical Engineering student from the Thapar Institute in Patiala, who had a 10.0 in the end.
It was a good show from Jaspreet too, as he wrenched the lead from Ashok Kumar after three shots, and led the pack after seven shots.
With three shooters on 586, and three more on 585, everyone had a chance for a medal. Sriram S. Konar of Maharashtra exemplified this point by jumping up from the eighth slot, in taking the bronze medal with a total of 688.9.
Konar shot the second best in the final with a 103.9, and Shamsher Singh of BSF, the host, took the fourth spot with a 103.1 in the final after a 585 in the preliminaries that had put him in the seventh position.
Young Sameer Ambekar, a favourite in the absence of Abhinav, grappled with his form in the final and finished eighth, with a total of 685.6 after a 586. Ashok Kumar took the seventh slot with a disappointing 95 in the final, in which he could manage only three 10s.
The results:
Men: 10m air rifle: 1. Bharat Singh (Army) 691.1 (586); 2. Jaspreet Singh (Punj) 690.4 (589); 3. Sriram S. Konar (Mah) 688.9 (585).
Team: 1. BSF (Akhilesh Rai 585, Raj Kumar 585, Shamsher Singh 585) 1755; 2. Army (A. P. Subbaiah 586, Bharat Singh 586, Sunil Kumar 581) 1753; 3. Maharashtra (Yogesh B. Gadmale 579, Sameer R. Ambekar 586, Mangesh V. Mane 575) 1740.
Juniors: 1. Abhijit Konduskar (Mah) 583; 2. Imran Hasan (Army) 580; 3. Mangesh V. Mane (Mah) 575.
Team: 1. Maharashtra (Abhijit Konduskar 583, Mangesh V. Mane 575, Sagar Sudhir Kulkarni 571) 1729; 2. Army (Surendra Singh Rathore 572, Kuldeep Singh 574, Imran Hasan 580) 1726.
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