Date:06/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/06/stories/2006050605101700.htm

Sport

Sonia thrilled by WC feat

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: She is the first Indian pistol shooter ever to win a World Cup medal.

Sonia Rai was understandably thrilled and proud about her feat as she returned home with the rest of the team from the World Cup in Brazil in the early hours of Friday.

"I am very happy. I had not done this well before in an international competition of this magnitude both in terms of score and medal, but I had been taught to never accept defeat. I was shooting well at home, but not abroad. I knew the results would come if I kept at it sincerely,'' said the 25-year-old lady, wife of former national skeet champion Amardeep Singh Rai and mother of a year-and-a-half old daughter Deepshika.

Sonia had shot a 384 out of 400 in the qualifying series and 482.2 overall to bag the bronze medal in air pistol.

"There was one eight and a few 9.8 and 9.7s in my last series. In the final, I shot well on the last four shots with 10.0, 10.7, 10.2, 10.4 and missed the silver and the Olympic quota place by 0.6 points,'' Sonia said.

`Good augury'

The National coach, Prof. Sunny Thomas, also agreed that Sonia could have easily shot a 387 and gunned for the gold but for a bad last series. He said her medal was a good augury for pistol shooting in the country.

Prof. Thomas also praised Anjali Bhagwat for getting the Olympic quota in the sport rifle 3-position event, which would provide ample opportunities for talented shooters like Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur to bag the quota place in air rifle.

It was the second quota place for the Beijing Olympics by an Indian following the effort by Gagan Narang who won the air rifle gold in the last World Cup in China.