Sport - Shooting

Rathore wastes a golden opportunity

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Ahmed Al Maktoum of UAE who won the gold, Australia's Adam Vella (right) who claimed the silver and the bronze winner, India's Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (left) snapped during the Double Trap finals of the Shotgun World Cup at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range in Tughlakabad on Monday. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI MARCH 17. It was a heroic effort. In a classy field, Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, however, let the Olympic quota slip from his grasp in a gripping climax but ended up with a face-saving bronze in the double trap event of the shotgun World Cup at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on Monday.

In a rare occurrence, all six finalists shot 141 out of 150 in the preliminary phase. In fact, eventual champion Ahmed al Maktoum of the UAE, who grabbed the gold as well as the Olympic quota with a 187, was the last to join the final as he wound up with a 46 following efforts of 48 and 47.

Rathore shot rounds of 46, 46 and 49 in the qualifying series. When everyone else was missing the `flash birds' in the first half of the final, Rathore was on course after an early hiccup when he dropped birds 13 and 14 on station No. 1.

However, the thought that the prestigious quota was there for the taking, along with a dip in concentration, saw Rathore miss the 36, 38, 40 and 48th birds. By then, al Maktoum, who had missed birds 8, 30, 32 and 36, had his nerves under check and hit the cruise mode in the climax.

Adam Vella of Australia, who had clinched the Olympic quota in Perth recently with a gold in trap, took the silver with a 45 in the final.

Rathore was tied for third position with world champion and world record holder, Daniele Dispigno of Italy. In a nerve-wracking tie-shoot, Rathore won 11-10 to secure the bronze. He missed the sixth bird in the tie-shoot but so did the Italian. Dispigno also shot wide on the 12th to lose the bronze.

The bronze medal assures Rathore, the Commonwealth Games double gold medallist, Rs. 10 lakhs as announced by NRAI president, Mr. Digvijay Singh. However, Rathore may not be too happy knowing that he had done everything to get the Olympic quota, except the finishing touch.

``I had it in my hand. It was a very interesting competition right from the beginning. I was confident about shooting good. There was enormous pressure because it was the home range and everyone expected me to do well. I am disappointed, but you learn from such experiences,'' said Rathore, who had shot a 49 in the final following a 142, for a 191 in winning the Commonwealth Games gold.

For someone figuring in the first international competition of the season, Rathore did exceptionally well. Of course, he will be training harder to nail the quota in the ensuing competitions.

Chinese shooters, Zheng Wang and Binyuan Hu, who had not touched scores below 46 in the preliminaries, could not stand up to scrutiny in the final as they shot 42 and 41 respectively to take the fifth and sixth positions.

Russell Mark of Australia, who had won the Olympic quota and the double trap gold in Perth recently, started with a 49, but rounds of 43 and 44 pulled down his aggregate to 136. Incidentally, this was the next best score after 141, in a strong field of 42 shooters.

The two Indian shooters, Moraad Ali Khan and Gaurav Sondhi, finished 20th and 28th respectively with scores of 129 and 123. Moraad, with rounds of 40, 48 and 41, had problems handling the birds while aiming from the fifth station and missed 13 of them from that position. Gaurav had rounds of 44, 40 and 39.

The Indian team took the bronze with a 393, behind Australia (408) and Italy (398).

Shooting for the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS), Ronjan Sodhi had rounds of 43, 43 and 44 (130) and Dil Bahadur Thapa shot a 116 with a sequence of 41, 39 and 36.

There were only two competitors in the Grand Prix event for women. Shagun Chaudhary finished second with 83 out of 120, 15 points behind Magdalena Cawlikowska of Poland. It was better than her 71 in the National championship. Shagun had rounds of 28, 27 and 28 today.

After two days of training, the trap and skeet events will be held on March 20 and 21.

The technical delegate and vice president of ISSF, Mr. Medhat Mohamed Wahda, gave away the medals.

The results:

Double trap: 1. Ahmed al Maktoum (UAE) (141, 46) 187; 2. Adam Vella (Aus) (141, 45) 186; 3. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (141, 44) 185 (11); 4. Daniele Dispigno (Ita) (141, 44) 185 (10); 5. Binyuan Hu (Chn) (141, 42) 183 and 6. Zheng Wang (Chn) (141, 41) 182.

Team: 1. Australia (Russell Mark 136, Adam Vella 141, Tom Turner 131) 408; 2. Italy (Emanuele Bernasconi 125, Daniele Dispigno 141, Marco Innocenti 132) 398; 3. India (Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore 141, Moraad Ali Khan 129, Gaurav Sondhi 123) 393.

Women: 1. Magdalene Cawlikowska (Pol) 98; 2. Shagun Chaudhary 83.

Juniors: 1. Asab Ali 113.

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