Anisa, Ayonika, Prakash shoots silver
Glasgow
Indian marksmen returned with a rich haul of five medals, including two yellow through Rahi Sarnobat and Apurvi Chandela to completely dominate the shooting event so far in the 20th Commonwewalth Games on Saturday.
After Friday’s one gold and one silver, the Indians bagged two gold and three silver on Saturday to accumulate seven medals (3, 4, 0) from shooting so far.
India could not win a medal in only men’s and women’s skeet and newly introduced Queen’s Prize pairs and bagged at least a medal in all the five events held so far.
It was an all-Indian affair in the women’s 25m pistol event and Sanorbat beat Anisa Sayyed in the gold-medal match 8-2 to cap a brilliant second day of shooting competitions at the Barry Buddon Centre at Dundee. Australia’s Lalita Yauhleuskaya bagged the bronze medal.
Sarnobat had won two gold medals in 2010 CWG in Delhi besides also becoming India’s first pistol shooter to win gold medal in World Cup, in South Korea, last year.
Sayyed had also won two gold medals in 2010 CWG. Young Rajasthan girl Apurvi, earlier, got India its second gold from the shooting range winning the 10m Air Rifle event as compatriot Ayonika Paul boosted the medal tally with a silver.
Prakash Najappa had won a silver in the 10m Air Pistol event. The 21-year-old Chandela led from the beginning to win the yellow metal with a score of 206.7 while Ayonika finished a creditable second with a score of 204.9.
It was only fitting that the Jaipur girl, who started shooting only six years back after watching Abhinav Bindra get gold in the Beijing Olympics, won in the legendary shooter’s pet event.
Chandela, whose father has built a shooting range at home, trains under her uncle Hem Singh.
She was consistency personified throughout the event as she topped the qualifying rounds with a score of 415.6. Ayonika qualified with a fourth position.
In the main round, Chandela regularly scored between 10.2 to 10.7 as she always maintained at least 1.5 points difference from his nearest rival.
Ayonika was not in medal contention till the first 10 shots but she was brilliant in the back 10 as she regularly fired 10.5 to 10.7 to improve her position.
Earlier, Nanjappa finished a heart-breaking second in men’s 10m Air Pistol to give India their third medal. Nanjappa, who won a bronze in the ISSF World Cup in South Korea last year, was leading at the end of the second series of the elimination stage but he apparently lost concentration and shot a disappointing 7.7 to hand the lead to eventual winner Daniel Repacholi of Australia.
Despite the setback in the sixth shot of the elimination stage, the 38-year-old Banglorean tried his best to catch up with the Australian but failed to do so in the end and had to settle with a silver at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at Dundee.
Nanjappa later said it would have been better if he had won a gold. “It was satisfactory, obviously it could have been better by winning the gold. It was a good feeling, but I am slightly disappointed, there is always a next time,” he said.
