While the focus will be on the contest between Michael Diamond and Alexey Alipov in Beijing, Manavjit Singh Sandhu will try to bring the gold to India, writes Kamesh Srinivasan.
Can anyone stop Michael Diamond, the finest shotgun of all time, from winning his third Olympic gold in Beijing? The energetic Aussie, who won his second successive Olympic gold at a range named after him in Sydney with a record 149 out of 150, had to battle personal problems and uncertainty over his selection in the run-up to the last Olympics in Athens where he finished eighth.
The good news for Diamond’s fans — and a bad one for his rivals — is that the 36-year-old shooter is back in form, winning back-to-back gold medals in the World Cups in America and Europe. In the process, Diamond also equalled his own final world record in trap (148 out of 150) — following the revised ISSF rules of single-shot finals since 2005 — in the World Cup in Kerrville in May this year. He had set the record earlier in the Nicosia World Championship last year. Will Diamond be able to wrest the title from Alexey Alipov of Russia, who had equalled the Aussie’s Olympic record of 149 out of 150 while winning the gold at the Athens Olympics?
The battle between these two shooting stars has been on for quite some time. In the World Championship in Tampere in 1999, Diamond and Alipov ended up with the same total, 145 out of 150, but the Aussie won the tie-shoot 3-2 to bag one of his five World Championship gold medals. For the Russian, the World Championship title has proved elusive.
Interestingly, Diamond had been a world champion in double trap as well, and he is still the holder of the world record, that was recently equalled by India’s Ronjan Sodhi.
It was a tremendous effort by Diamond in Tampere as he shot a perfect 25 in the final to catch up with Alipov, who had shot a 123 in the preliminary phase but only a 22 in the final.
More recently, in the World Cup in Suhl, Germany, Diamond won the gold with a 145, while Alipov had to be content with the bronze at 143. Alipov had to go through a shoot-off with five others for the last slot in the final, after the 18th bird, before matching his wits against the best in the climax.
The Olympic test event, the Beijing World Cup this season, did not see Diamond, but Alipov adapted to the conditions well to bag the silver medal following a tie-shoot with two others. Mario Filipovic of Slovakia bagged the gold, scoring two points more than Alipov.
While the focus will be on Diamond-Alipov contest in Beijing, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, the world champion, will try to bring the gold to India. In the World Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, in July 2006, Manavjit won the honours with a score of 143. He had made the final following a minor shoot-off where four contestants fought for three slots. Interestingly, these slots were decided after the first shot itself.
Manavjit then overcame a two-point deficit against the leader, world record holder Pavel Gurkin (Russia), to go one better than Karni Singh, who had won the silver medal at the World Championship in Rome in 1962.
While emerging as India’s first shotgun world champion, Manavjit witnessed Alipov miss the final by one point. At the same championship, Diamond fell to No. 35 with a 116.
Perhaps, Manavjit can win the honours yet again, right under the nose of the previous Olympic champions, Diamond and Alipov.
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