The Hindu : Anjali bags World Cup silver

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 13, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Anjali bags World Cup silver

NEW DELHI APRIL 12. Anjali Vedpathak gave a rousing start to the Indian challenge by clinching the air rifle silver medal in the shooting World Cup in Sydney on Friday.

The 32-year-old Anjali showed her prowess with a total of 500.1, as she warded off a stiff challenge from the rest of the field, even as Sun Hwa Seo of Korea shot a 502.3 for the gold, which included a breathtaking world record of a perfect 400 in the preliminary phase.

Going into the final, her fifth in World Cups, apart from the Sydney Olympics, Anjali had rounds of 100, 99, 99 and 99.

There was Katerina Kurkova of the Czech Republic who also had a 397, with rounds of 100, 100, 97 and 100, but Anjali silenced her in the final by a big margin of 103.1 to 101.6.

In fact, Anjali shot the third best among the eight finalists, with a series of 9.8, 10.6, 10.1, 10.4, 10.6, 10.4, 9.8, 10.4 and 10.3.

``I am very happy'', said Anjali after the final, as it was her first medal in a World Cup in her illustrious.

The last World Cup medal for the country had been achieved by Abhinav Bindra in Munich last year, when he took the Air rifle bronze, with a world junior record score of 597.

Two other better performers in the final, Valerie Bellenoue of France and Ling Li of China, with rounds of 103.5 and 103.4, had to settle for the fourth and fifth slots respectively with 498.5 and 498.4 as they had only a 395 in the preliminary phase.

Lioubov Galkina of Russia and Jung Mi Kim of Korea took the sixth and seventh slots respectively with 498.1 and 497.7 after identical preliminary scores of 396.

Anjali had, of course, given a hint of the bright things to come when she scorched the European Tour with spectacular efforts of seven medals, including three gold, in eight finals recently.

Anjali had also shot a world record score of 399 in one of the meets in the Netherlands. To have shot a 397 after the inadequate preparations at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad was a creditable effort indeed.

There was considerable inspiration for Anjali on the day she left for the twin World Cups in Sydney and Shanghai, as the government had agreed in principle to her proposal to train for 15 days with coach Laszlo Szucsak in Finland before the World Championship to be held in Lahti in July.

Meanwhile, the magnitude of the effort by the eventual gold winner in Sydney could be gleaned from the fact that the World record had earlier stood at 399, achieved 11 times by eight people in UIT recognised competitions. Quite deservingly, the only Olympic quota in the event went to Sun Hwa Seo.

The other Indians in the fray also did well, with Pournima Gawhane taking the eighth position with a 495.4. She had a series of 99, 97, 98 and 100 for a 394 in the preliminary phase, and had a 10.5, 10.3, 10.1, 9.9, 9.6, 10.4, 9.9, 10.0, 10.6 and 10.1 fare in the final.

Suma Shirur finished joint 10th with three others with a 393. She had rounds of 98 96, 100 and 99.

Shooting for the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) for the Olympics, Meena Kumari had a 392 with rounds of 97, 100, 99 and 96 while Raj Kumari had a 385 with rounds of 97, 95, 98 and 95.

It was the first day of the first World Cup of the season, and the 31-member Indian contingent will have a tough task, keeping pace with the brilliant start given by Anjali, the soft-spoken CISF inspector from Mumbai.

— Our Special Correspondent

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