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Shooting
By Kamesh Srinivasan
To be one of the 23 countries to win at least a medal so far, in a strong field of about 100 countries, has been something to cheer about, but to figure at the bottom of that table was something difficult to digest for India, which has a clutch of good shooters. The problem over the last two days has been the inability of the shooters to strike their usual scores. It is tough to be at your best every day, but in a competition of this nature, it is important to give your best. It is easily said than done, though. The juniors have been trying hard to make it a memorable exercise for themselves and people back home, but have not been able to give their best in the biggest event of their fledgling career. Gagan Narang and Kuldeep Singh shot identical scores of 581, in the air rifle event on Saturday, to be joint 42nd in a field of 78 shooters. It was eight points below his season best of 589 for Kuldeep, who started with a 95 and ended with another 95, which masked his good fare of shooting 391 out of 400 in the other four rounds. Kuldeep shot 95, 98, 97, 97, 99 and 95 while Gagan had rounds of 96, 96, 97, 97, 98 and 97. Considering that both were shooting in their maiden international competition, it was understandable that Gagan and Kuldeep had problems to solve with their technique etc. Abhijeet Konduskar who does not shoot much of air rifle, came up with a below par 570, with rounds of 96, 95, 94, 95, 94 and 96. That put the team at the joint 16th spot with a total of 1732. The gold went to China at 1771 while Germany and the U.S. took the silver and bronze at 1765 and 1759 respectively. Their best would have been good enough for the Indian lads to fetch a medal, but they are still learning the ropes of the trade. Had Abhinav Bindra been shooting with them in the junior event, Indian team could have hoped for an individual gold itself, which eventually went to Dirk Leiwen of Germany at 593, apart from a possible team medal. But, the 19-year-old Abhinav has trained his focus on getting one of the six quota places for Athens, and rightly so. Being the world junior record holder with a 597, Abhinav has little prove to the junior world.
Below-par fare
In men's air pistol, the Indian fare was much below expectations as all the three shooters shot an average score, on Friday. Jaspal Rana at 572 was marginally better than Samaresh Jung and Ved Prakash who returned identical scores of 571, on Friday. There may be half a dozen explanations, including the noisy arena, as the targets looked too close to the stands apart from the general trend of low scores, but the inability of Jaspal and company, with rich international experience, to rise to the world standards was glaring. Jaspal had himself shot scores of 579 and 577 in the Sydney and Shanghai World Cups recently, and has a personal best of 582 in the event. It may be explained that Jaspal has been concentrating a little too hard on his favourite events, the centrefire pistol and standard pistol. Samaresh Jung had shot a national record 584 on the European circuit earlier in the season, but has been struggling to strike such form in the World Cups. He shot well except for two rounds of 93 and 94 that pulled him down. Ved Prakash, who shot a 581 in the last trials, did much better than what he had managed in the World Cups when he had 563 and 561. He also undid his good work with rounds of 92 and two 94s. The Indian team was joint 14th in a field of 27 teams. The gold went at 1745 to Russia and the bronze at 1735 to Ukraine. The Indian marksmen could have been in the medal bracket had they been able to match their own best scores, which would have put them in the individual final as well in a field of 121 shooters. But then, it is tough to do that in a world championship. Mikhail Nestruev of Rusia took the gold at 685.3 and also the Olympic quota. In fact, six of the top seven took the quota place for Athens. There was heartbreak for Vladimir Gontcharov of Russia, who shot the best in the final with a 102.2, but he not only missed the bronze by 0.2 points but also the Olympic quota as two of his compatriots had completed Russia's quota before him ! As per the rules only two shooters from a country can win a quota in an event. The Olympic champion Franck Dumoulin of France took the bronze, while the defending world champion Wang Yifu finished fifth. Silver medallist Andrija Zlatic of Yugoslavia, sixth placed Norayr Bakhtamyan of Armenia and Daryl Szarenski of the US were the others to win the quota. In the junior women's 3-position event, Rajkumari Dodiya, the only Indian entry fought a bad score in the first round of standing position to return a decent score of 562, that put her at the joint 18th slot among 53 shooters. After the 194 in the prone position, Rajkumari could shoot only a 175 out of 200 in the standing position because of rounds of 84 and 91. She picked herself gamely from that precarious position with an impressive 193 in the kneeling position. The medal in the prone event has made Rajkumari a lot more confident, and she will have another chance to prove her class in the air rifle event. On a day when Anjali had shot only a 563, and the Indian team had finished 16th among 27 teams in the 3-position event, it was not a bad effort by the junior. In fact, Rajkumari's 193 in kneeling was much superior to Anjali's 184, Anuja Tere's 186 and Suma Shirur's 181 in the elimination round. The young generation is catching up, and that is a good sign for the future. The results: Men's 10m air pistol: 1. Mikhail Nestruev (Rus) 685.3 (585); 2. Andrija Zlatic 9Yug) 683.9 (583); 3. Franck Dumoulin (Fra) 683.4 (584); 47T. Jaspal Rana 572 (95, 96, 98, 94, 94, 95); 53T. Samaresh Jung 571 (97, 93, 98, 96, 94, 93) and Ved Prakash 571 (97, 97, 92, 94, 97, 94). Team : 1. Russia 1745, 2. China 1737, 3. Ukraine 1735, 14T. India 1714. Junior women's 3-position: 1. Dorothee Bauer (Ger) 587, 2. Jamie Beyerle (US) 578; 3. Chengyi Wang (Chn) 576; 18T. Rajkumari Dodiya 562 (98, 96; 84, 91; 96, 97).
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