Bad range, good fare

KAMESH SRINIVASAN

THE Indian shooters have been doing well in recent times, and they utilised the opportunity in the National Games, to put up a decent show.

Two national records, one by Samaresh Jung in the 50-metre free pistol event and the other by Sushma Rana in the 25-metre sport pistol event were the major achievements, though there were a number of new meet records to show for the considerable development of the shooters over the past two years.

After the uncertainty over the very conduct of the shooting event in the National Games, because of the incomplete infrastructure in Mohali, it was indeed a relief for everyone that things moved in the positive direction, though a lot was left to be desired.

The main attraction of any shooting competition, the trap and skeet events, which make for a spectacle as the moving clay pigeons are shot down by the marksmen in a cavalier fashion, proved a heart-break for everyone concerned because of the malfunctioning of the 12-year-old machines which seemed to have been preserved only to be used during this competition!

While the trap and double trap events were completed after a lot of hiccups, the skeet event had to be restricted to 75 birds in the qualifying series instead of 125 as the organisers were running short of time, because of a strong field of 25 shooters.

There was indeed a lot of room for criticism on various fronts, like there not being a strong-room to keep the arms and ammunition and a number of technical deficiencies in each of the five ranges, but the shooters took everything in their stride to assert their class.

It was a commendable effort from Samaresh Jung to have made it to the competition, as he was getting married in a few days to another international shooter, Anuja Tere. In the event, Samaresh walked away with the free pistol gold, with a national record to boot, beating Jaspal Rana by a huge margin.

There was also a 13-year-old shooter, Zakir Khan, a ninth standard student of Godwin Public School from Johri village, who made a lasting impression by climbing from the seventh slot before the final to third for the bronze medal, beating the likes of Subhash Rana and Vivek Singh with a rare touch of authority.

Equally, it was a lot of effort on the part of air rifle specialist Abhinav Bindra to have made it to the competition, as he cut short his training stint in Germany. The 19-year-old Abhinav shattered the meet record with contempt, before returning to Germany to resume his training for the season ahead. Considering that he was focussing more on physical training and that he did not have his usual rifle, Abhinav's 591 in a primitive range with insufficient lighting, was praiseworthy.

Sushma Rana shot with such nonchalance that it was no surprise that she established the national record in the sport pistol event. She, however, did not distinguish herself in the air pistol event, as Sushma made the mistake of 'firing without a pellet' during the last series, which cost her 12 points and a place in the final. The experience would keep her on her toes in future.

Jaspal Rana was quite confident and did not have much of a fight on his way to clinching the centrefire pistol, standard pistol and air pistol gold medals. It was a welcome relief for the champion shooter to regain his confident touch in air pistol, after a string of poor scores in international competitions recently.

Ronak Pandit, the 16-year-old son of former ace, Ashok Pandit, was a class act in the rapidfire pistol event. The national coach Prof. Sunny Thomas echoed the sentiments of many, when he observed that Ronak would do well to focus on the rapidfire event, to reach world standards faster. Ronak was two points adrift of the national record, which should be in his bag soon.

The seasoned A. P. Subbiah was at his best in the free rifle 3-position event, as he grabbed the gold after trailing by five points before the final. Subbiah, had earlier lost to Satguru Das in the prone event, and it was a good recovery by the affable shooter.

Anwar Sultan and Major R. V. S. Rathore asserted their supremacy in the trap and double trap events, as they were more patient in handling the uncertainties of the range than the rest of the pack.

Amardeep Singh Rai took the skeet gold with his stylish shooting, ahead of the best in the country, in a competition that was restricted to 75 birds in the qualifying phase. It was once again better temperament that held sway.

In the women's section, Sonika Mannon regained old form to capture the air pistol gold ahead of Shilpi Singh, and that should augur well for the future, not just for Sonika, who has a masters degree in business administration, but the whole pack.

Olympian Anjali Vedpathak was at her classy best in the air rifle event, as she warded off a stiff challenge from Anuja Tere, to eventually prevail by 0.6 points. She, however, lost the sport rifle 3-position gold to the 18-year-old Raj Kumar, in a dramatic fashion, because of a wrong compilation of scores that was eventually corrected. Of course, it was a fine effort from Raj Kumari who shattered the meet records with considerable poise.

Kuheli Gangulee was her usual confident self in the sport rifle prone event, but was unable to assert herself in the other events.

Overall, the championship was another stepping stone for the Indian shooters in their quest to reach world standards.

The comment, "you call this a range, just because you have targets", by a prominent shooter should best sum up the standard of the ranges in Mohali.

The results:Men:

10-metre air pistol: 1. Jaspal Rana (Del) (577) 674.3; 2. Vivek Singh (Del) (571) 667.9; 3. Mahavir Singh (Serv) (568) 667.7.

Team: 1. Services (Ved Prakash 568, Mahavir Singh 568, Kamal Singh 561) 1697; 2. Delhi (Vivek Singh 569, Rajeev Sharma 539, Jaspal Rana 577) 1685; 3. Maharashtra (Ronak Pandit 563, Amol Ranke 562, Ashok Pandit 541) 1666.

50-metre free-pistol: 1. Samaresh Jung (HP) 561 (NR) 656.3; 2. Jaspal Rana (Del) (551) 634.2; 3. Zakir Khan (UP) (534) 627.8.

Team: 1. Services (Kamal Singh 537, Ved Prakash 529, Mohammed Kalamuddin 532) 1598; 2. Delhi (Vivek Singh 536, Rajeev Sharma 500, Jaspal Rana 551) 1587; 3. Madhya Pradesh (Naresh Kumar 521, Munir Ahmed 511, Hari Prakash 535) 1567.

25-metre Rapidfire pistol: 1. Ronak Pandit (Mah) (577, NMR, old 575) 667.6; 2. Bhanwar Lal Dhaka (Serv) (566) 663.4; 3. Poonam Kumar (MP) (566) 662.5

Team: 1. Madhya Pradesh (Manju Nath 560, Poonam Kumar 566, Mohinder Singh 563) 1689; 2. Services (Bhanwar Lal Dhaka 566, Ram Krishan 558, Mukesh Kumar 564) 1688; 3. Maharashtra (Raj Khalid 552, Ronak Pandit 577, Ashok Pandit 538) 1667.

25-metre centrefire pistol: 1. Jaspal Rana (Del) 585; 2. Ved Prakash (Serv) 571; 3. Mahavir Singh (Serv) 570.

Team: 1. Delhi (Vivek Singh 560, Rajeev Sharma 570, Jaspal Rana 585) 1715; 2. Services (Ved Prakash 571, C. K. Chaudhary 559, Mahavir Singh 570) 1700; 3. Madhya Pradesh (Naresh Kumar 566, Manju Nath 559, Poonam Kumar 563) 1688.

25-metre standard pistol: 1. Jaspal Rana (Del) 566; 2. Naresh Kumar (MP) 559; 3. Rajeev Sharma (Del) 556.

Team: 1. Delhi (Vivek Singh 548, Rajeev Sharma 556, Jaspal Rana 566) 1670; 2. Services (C. K. Chaudhary 555, Mahavir Singh 548, Pemba Tamang 556) 1659; 3. Madhya Pradesh (Naresh Kumar 559, Manju Nath 544, Poonam Kumar 547) 1650.

10-metre air rifle: 1. Abhinav Bindra (Punj) (591, NMR, old 579) 692.8 (NMR, old 679.6); 2. Praveen Rawat (Del) (585) 686.5; 3. Jaspreet Dhaliwal (Punj) 684.8.

Team: 1. Punjab (Abhinav Bindra 591, Jaspreet Dhaliwal 585, Sukhmanpreet Sidhu 581) 1757; 2. Delhi (Praveen Rawat 585, Magesh Panwar 584, Shimon Sharif 582) 1751; 3. Maharashtra (Sameer Ambekar 581, Sandeep Tarte 579, Mangesh Mane 583) 1743.

50-metre free rifle prone: 1. Satguru Das (Serv) (585) 688.5; 2. Joydeep Banerjee (WB) (586) 685.7; 3. A. P. Subbiah (Serv) (585) 685.5.

Team: 1. Services (Satguru Das 585, D. K. Dubey 583, A. P. Subbaiah 585) 1753; 2. West Bengal (Joydeep Banerjee 586, Pankaj Poddar 580, Joydeep Karmarkar 565) 1731; 3. Rajasthan (Iqbal Ahmed 570, Nepal Singh 576, Hanumana Ram 584) 1730.

50-metre free rifle 3-position: 1. A. P. Subbiah (Serv) (1130, NMR, old 1124) 1224.8 (NMR, old 1210.6); 2. Charan Singh (Serv) (1130) 1224.1; 3. T. C. Palangappa (Serv) (1127) 1223.3.

Team: 1. Services (T. C. Palangappa 1127, A. P. Subbiah 1130, Charan Singh 1130)3387; 2. Madhya Pradesh (Raj Kumar 1116, Shamsher Singh 1118, Akhilesh Rai 1067) 3301; 3. Rajasthan (Iqbal Ahmed 1114, G. L. Yadav 1066, Nepal Singh 1108) 3288.

Trap: 1. Anwar Sultan (UP) (23, 21, 25, 23, 24; 23) 139 (NMR, old 137); 2. Mansher Singh (Del) (22, 25, 20, 25, 22; 22) 136; 3. Manavjit Singh (Punj) (23, 21, 24, 24, 21; 22) 135.

Team: 1. Punjab (Manavjit Singh 113, Zorawar Singh 106, Birendeep Sodhi 97) 316; 2. Uttar Pradesh (S. M. Faisal 102, G. R. Khan 92, Anwar Sultan 116) 310; 3. Delhi (Mansher Singh 114, Irshad Kazim 95, Karan Kumar 91) 300.

Double trap: 1. R. V. S. Rathore (Serv) (37, 41, 41; 41) 160; 2. Manavjit Singh (Punj) (40, 35, 40; 39) 154; 3. Ronjan Sodhi (Punj) (38, 39, 34; 36) 147.

Team: 1. Services (R. V. S. Rathore 119, Dil Bahadur Thapa 99, Hem Raj 98) 316; 2. Punjab (Manavjit Singh 115, Zorawar Singh 76, Ronjan Sodhi 111) 302; 3. Delhi (Azam Khan 102, Vikram Bhatnagar 101, Irshad Kazim 80) 283.

Skeet: 1. Amardeep Singh Rai (Chat) (24, 22, 24; 24) 94; 2. Rahul Rai (Del) (22, 23, 24; 24) 93; 3. Harinder Singh Bedi (Del) (22, 24, 25; 21) 92.

Team: 1. Delhi (Harinder Singh Bedi 71, Rahul Rai 69, P. S. Sodhi 67) 207; 2. Chattisgarh (Naveen Jindal 65, Amardeep Singh Rai 70, Rajpal Singh Kocchar 65) 200; 3. Haryana (Rao Inderjit Singh 68, Shivender Bhel 64, Saravdeep Mann 65) 197.

Women:

10-metre air pistol: 1. Sonika Mannon (Del) (375, NMR, old 374) 474.4 (NMR, old 472.3); 2. Shilpi Singh (Har) (375) 470.9; 3. Saroja Kumari (Serv) (374) 467.8.

Team: 1. Delhi (Sushma Rana 363, Sonika Mannon 375, Mukti Kapoor 362) 1100; 2. Haryana (Shilpi Singh 375, Deepali Shokeen 351, Shweta Chaudhary 373) 1099; 3. Uttar Pradesh (Seema Tomar 369, Anuraj Singh 359, Sarvesh Tomar 364) 1092.

25-metre sport pistol: 1. Sushma Rana (Del) (579 NR, old 578) 679.5 NR, old 667.0; 2. Saroja Kumari (Serv) (565) 663.3; 3. Shilpi Singh (Har) (565) 658.1.

Team: 1. Delhi (Sushma Rana 579, Sonika Mannon 551, Bharti Singh 520) 1650; 2. Himachal Pradesh (Sonia Rana 560, Shivani Rana 494, Reena Rana 550) 1604; 3. Haryana (Shilpi Singh 565, Shweta Chaudhary 551, Seema Gaur 480) 1596.

10-metre air rifle: 1. Anjali Vedpathak (Mah) (396, NMR, old 387) 499.5 (NMR, old 487.3); 2. Anuja Tere (Mah) (396) 498.9; 3. Sabeeha Dhillon (Punj) (393) 495.5.

Team: 1. Maharashtra (Anjali Vedpathak 396, Anuja Tere 396, Poornima Gawhane 390) 1182; 2. Punjab (Sabeeha Dhillon 393, Jasmeen Brar 383, Navdeep Dhillon 382) 1158; 3. Madhya Pradesh (Raj Kumari 391, Meena Kumari 389, Sunita Sanketh 369) 1149.

50-metre sport rifle prone: 1. Kuheli Gangulee (WB) 590 (NMR, old 580); 2. Anjali Vedpathak (Mah) 589; 3. Raj Kumari (MP) 586.

Team: 1. West Bengal (Kuheli Gangulee 590, Mita Mukherjee 581, Chaitali Das 577) 1748; 2. Maharashtra (Anjali Vedpathak 589, Poornima Gawhane 568, Rakhee Patkar 578) 1735; 2. Madhya Pradesh (Meena Kumari 580, Raj Kumari 586, Sunita Sanketh 565) 1731.

50-metre sport rifle 3-position: 1. Raj Kumari (MP) (569, NMR, old 562) 666.1 (NMR, old 653.2); 2. Anjali Vedpathak (Mah) (565) 664.8; 3. Kuheli Gangulee (WB) (568) 659.1.

Team: 1. Maharashtra (Anjali Vedpathak 565, Poornima Gawhane 560, Leena Shirodhkar 558) 1683; 2. Madhya Pradesh (Meena Kumari 559, Raj Kumari 569, Sunita Sanketh 549) 1677; 3. Services (Birmati 555, M. Suganthi 553, A. Philipose 552) 1660.