Date:13/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/13/stories/2007121357922000.htm

Sport - Shooting

Sanjeev impresses

KUWAIT: Rifleman Sanjeev Rajput shot impressively to claim silver medal in the men’s 50m rifle three-position event on the final day of the Asian shooting championship here on Wednesday.

Rajput shot 1165 in the qualification round before logging 98.8 in the final for a total of 1263.8. Rajput, who already has Olympic quota in this event, also won the team silver along with Imran Hasan Khan (1150) and Gagan Narang (1145).

The second silver medal came in the centre fire pistol event when Vijay Kumar clinched the medal in a tie-shoot. Vijay Kumar had a score of 582 out of 600 that helped the Indian centre fire pistol team also to clinch the silver medal. Samresh Jung (576) and Pushpender Singh (575) were the other members of the team.

Junior shooters kept up India’s gold hunt as Sorab Singh fired 133 out of 150 to clinch the yellow medal in the skeet event. Sorab found 111 targets in the qualification round in the junior men’s event before he came up with an impressive 22 out of 25 to seal the gold medal.

Sorab’s impressive scores also helped Indian squad to claim the team gold with Sheeraj Sheikh (105) and Man Singh (103) being the other marksmen in the team. The senior skeet shooters, however, had a poor outing. At the end of the 10-day event, India finished with six gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals – a below par performance as the shooters warm up for the next year’s Olympic Games.