Date:21/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/21/stories/2008042160742100.htm

Sport - Shooting

Gagan Narang fifth

NEW DELHI: Gagan Narang continued with his good run and took the fifth place in the 50-metre freerifle 3-position event in the shooting World Cup in Beijing that concluded on Sunday.

The 24-year-old shooter from Hyderabad had a total of 1262.5 including a 1165 in the preliminary phase for the fifth spot.

It was a successful culmination of Narang’s challenge as he had won the bronze in the air rifle event earlier, apart from finishing 11th in the prone event.

Narang had a series of 394 in prone, 385 in standing and 386 in kneeling. In the final, he had a long gap to bridge against the leaders, but a string of seven 9s meant that he could not strike a second medal in the meet.

The other Indian who made the cut, Sanjeev Rajput could not follow up on a good start when he had a 392 in prone, and rounds of 366 and 376 in standing and kneeling positions meant that he took the 51st slot with a 1134.

Incidentally, Sanjeev had clinched the Olympic quota place in the event at the World Cup in Fort Benning last year.

The results: 50m freerifle 3-position: 1. Jossein Henry (Fra) 1268.8 (1173); 2. Jury Sukhorukov (Ukr) 1268.0 (1171); 3. Sergei Kovalenko (Rus) 1266.9 (1168); 5. Gagan Narang 1262.5 (1165); 51. Sanjeev Rajput 1134.

Skeet: 1. Qu Ridong (Chn) 144 (120); 2. Konstantin Tsuranov (Rus) 143 (6) 120; 3. Andrea Filippetti (Ita) 143 (5) 120; 45. Allan Daniel Peoples 111; 69. Mairaj Ahmad Khan 103. MQS: Man Singh 108.