The Hindu : Arti finishes fourth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Arti finishes fourth

NEW DELHI APRIL 17 . She was not at her fighting best, but Arti Singh finished fourth thanks to a depleted field in women's skeet in the shooting World Cup in Sydney on Wednesday.

Having competed in the prestigious World Cup finals recently and trained hard with the coach from Peru, Juan Giha, Arti was expected to put up a better fare. However, with rounds of 20, 18 and 19 in the preliminary phase, Arti could must only a below par 57 out of 75 in the run-up to a sure final, as only six were in the fray. She then followed with a 17 for a final tally of 74, which did not compare with her 71 out of 75 last year when she finished fourth in a strong field in the World Cup in Lonato.

In a field that had four Australians, there was a fight for the gold between Lauren Ogilvie of Australia and Diana Igaly of Hungary. The former prevailed with a successful tenth shot in the tie-shoot, after the two had tied at 95.

In men's skeet, Rahoul Rai was lying joint 29th with a 71 out of 75 on the first day of competition. He had rounds of 24, 23 and 24. Commonwealth championship gold badge winner Harinder Singh Bedi (22, 21, 21) and the national champion Amardeep Singh Rai were figuring at the 43rd and 44th slots with rounds of 64 and 63 respectively.

Shooting for the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS), Naveen Jindal had rounds of 23, 23 and 24 for a 70.

In rapidfire pistol, Ronak Pandit had rounds of 95, 98 and 93 in the 8-second, 6-second and 4-second series. The young lad is expected to climb above his present ninth position, when the second round of 30 shots are fired on the morrow.

In the men's free rifle 3-position event, Charan Singh did well to compile a score of 1162 with 390 in prone, 378 in standing and 394 in kneeling. He was sixth in a batch of 27 shooters in the elimination round.

Abhijeet Konduskar had rounds of 393, 364 and 380 for a total of 1137 while Ashok Kumar Shahi had rounds of 384, 365 and 366 for a 1115.

Shooting in another batch, A. B. Subbaiah put together a score of 1141 with rounds of 386, 368 and 387.

The competition should be a lot lively on the morrow, but only Ronak Pandit may be able to fancy a chance of making the final.

The results: Women's skeet:

1. Lauren Ogilvie (Aus) (24, 23, 24; 24) 95 (10); 2. Diana Igaly (Hun) (24, 24, 25; 22) 95 (9); 3. Natalia Rahman (Aus) (23, 21, 23; 22) 89; 4. Arti Singh (20, 18, 19; 17) 74; 5. Christine Alexander (Aus) (15, 17, 17; 20) 69; 6. Zita Dettori (Aus) (14, 18, 19; 16) 67.

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