Date:26/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/26/stories/2008052654581800.htm

Sport - Shooting

Samaresh misses final by a whisker

NEW DELHI: Commonwealth Games champion Samaresh Jung struck top form, but missed making the air pistol final on the count back in the shooting World Cup in Milan on Sunday.

A below par last card cost a final berth for Samaresh, who shot a 581 out of 600 following a series of 96, 96, 99, 98, 97 and 95. He eventually finished 10th in a field of 73.

The two other Indian shooters in air pistol, Vivek Singh (574) and Omkar Singh (572) finished 39th and 46th respectively. Bapu Vanjare fared better in the MQS section with a 575.

In the women’s air rifle, Suma Shirur shot 396 out of 400, but missed the final by one point. She had four cards of 99.

Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany took the gold with two World records in the event. She equalled a perfect 400 in the qualifying series and had a final total of 505.0, a new record. The earlier final World record was held by Du Li of China at 504.9.

The results: Men: Air rifle: 1. Zhu Qinan (Chn) 701.2 (599); 2. Cao Yifei (Chn) 700.9 (596); 3. Peter Sidi (Hun) 700.3 (596); 13. P. T. Raghunath 595; 14. Gagan Narang 595; 18. Abhinav Bindra 594. MQS: Sanjeev Rajput 593; Hardeep Singh 586.

Women: Air rifle: 1. Sonja Pfeilschifter (Ger) 505.0 (400) WR; 2. Katerina Emmons (Cze) 503.0 (398); 3. Wu Liuxi (Chn) 501.8 (398); 12. Suma Shirur 396; 38. Anjali Bhagwat 392; 80. Avneet Kaur Sidhu 385. MQS: Tejaswini Sawant 394; Priya Agarwal 393.

Air pistol: 1. Guo Wenjun (Chn) 491.4 (389); 2. Antoaneta Boneva (Bul) 484.1 (385); 3. Lalita Yauhleuskaya (Aus) 483.7 (387); 39. Annu Raj Singh 377; 51. Shweta Chaudhry 375; 66. Harveen Srao 370. MQS: Rachana Govil 377; Minerva Singh 374.