Date:14/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/14/stories/2007081461312100.htm

Sport - Sports : General

Improved display by Indian shooters

NEW DELHI: Indian shooters put up an improved display by making the finals in two events on the fifth day of the World University Games in Bangkok on Monday.

Shweta Chaudhary, winner of the team bronze in the air pistol event, finished seventh in the sport pistol event after being third in the qualification round with a tally of 581. Shweta could manage only 193.3 in the final round and slipped in the standings. Chinese Wang Jie Yi shot a 585 and a 200.7 in the final to clinch gold. Sonal Ramendra (570) finished 17th.

Mohammed Asab made the men’s double trap final but could manage no better than the sixth place. He shot 130 in the qualification round and 34 in the final. Alexander Furasyev of Russia won the gold with a total of 181 including a 45 in the final. Sangram Dahiya (103) and Ajai Mittal (103) failed to qualify for the final and ended up 23rd and 24th.

Zakir Khan (573) and Amanpreet Singh (572) finished 15th and 17th in the men’s 10m air pistol competition. Kerala athlete A. Vijila narrowly missed a place in the final of the women’s 800 metres, clocking a career-best 2:05.93 in the semifinals on Monday. In a tight finish, with four runners clocking 2:05 behind the winner of the heat, Vijila was just 0.14 second off the fourth-placed Alena Rucklova of the Czech Republic.

The Indian swimmers continued to fare poorly. Rehan Poncha was more than seven seconds off his national record while finishing fifth in heat 2 of the men’s 400m individual medley in 4:44.75. Not that his best would have mattered since he was more than 30 seconds off the fastest qualifier into the final. V. Abhishek finished third and last in heat No. 1 (the slowest of the heats) in 4:54.47. In the men’s 50m butterfly heats, Tarun Tokas finished eighth in 28.08s while in the women’s 50m butterfly heats Pooja Ghorpade ended up sixth and last in her heat in 33.49s.