The Hindu : Suma makes final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 06, 2003

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Suma makes final

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 5. Suma Shirur was the only Indian, among the men and women, to make it to the air rifle final of the ongoing shooting World Cup in Zagreb, Croatia. However, Suma was unable finish any better than the seventh slot, despite having made the final with the second best score of 396 along with four others.

A below par 101.0 in the final, after a preliminary sequence of 98, 99, 99 and 100 meant that the 28-year-old Suma missed the medal by a 2.2 point margin.

The gold went to Li Du of China who was on a world record spree. The Chinese followed a world record 400 with a 104.9 to make a final world record of 504.9. The previous final world record, at 504.2 had stood againt the name of Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany. She had accomplished the record in the World Cup in Milan last June. Sun Hwa Seo of Korea, Jing Gao of China and Lioubov Galkina of Russia are the others to have shot a world record 400 in the preliminary phase.

Sun Hwa Seo took the silver with a 500.4, following an impressive 104.4 in the final. Another Korean Cho Hyun Kang took the bronze with a 499.2, and along with it the second Olympic quota for the event, for Korea.

The world champion Katerina Kurkova of the Czech Republic had to be content with the fourth slot at 498.8. Yinghui Zhao of China at 498.2 and Melanie Neininger of Germany at 497.6 were the others to finish ahead of Suma, while Emily Caruso of the U.S. was eighth at 496.1.

Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat, fresh from her gold winning effort in the World Cup in Fort Benning, took the joint 15th slot with a 394, following a series of 100, 96, 99, 99.

Deepali Deshpande had missed the quota place by 0.3 points in the U.S., when all the three Indian women were in the final, but finished a joint 45th with a 391 in a field of 103 shooters in Zagreb. She had a miserable start for a sequence of 97, 96, 99 and 99.

In the men's air rifle event, Abhinav Bindra failed to make the final by one point. A 593, following a series of 98, 99, 98, 99, 100 and 99 could only fetch a joint 11th spot for the 19-year-old Abhinav, who holds the world junior record at 597, achieved as far back as in June 2001.

The 20-year-old Gagan Narang, fresh from his silver in the international junior shooting competition in Suhl, had just about managed to reach in time for the World Cup, and shot very well to finish a joint 24th with a 592. Gagan had a series of 99, 99, 98, 99, 99 and 98.

The third Indian, Sameer Ambekar was woefully out of form, and shot a 583, with rounds of 97, 96, 100, 99, 95 and 96 to be joint 79th in a field of 108 shooters. Peter Sidi of Hungary took the gold with a 699.2 following a 103.2 in the final. Torsten Krebs of Germany beat Robert Kraskowski of Poland by 698.7 to 698.4 to take the silver.

In the process, Krebs, who shot a 596 in the preliminary phase, became the second German after Frank Koestel to grab the Olympic quota in air rifle. Koestel had accompliashed the task in the last World Cup with a fourth place, when he shot a 593 followed by a 102.1.

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