SAG shooting: Chain Singh steals the show

Displaying consistency, Chain Singh outgunned Gagan Narang in the final of the men’s 50m rifle prone event at the South Asian Games to underline his growing prowess in the event.

Published : Feb 11, 2016 20:29 IST , Guwahati

India's Chain Singh, the winner of the 50m rifle prone event, on the podium with his gold medal.
India's Chain Singh, the winner of the 50m rifle prone event, on the podium with his gold medal.
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India's Chain Singh, the winner of the 50m rifle prone event, on the podium with his gold medal.

India’s Chain Singh stole a march over his fancied team-mate Gagan Narang at the SAA shooting range, Kahilipara, here on Thursday.

Displaying consistency, the 26-year-old marksman outgunned Narang in the final of the men’s 50m rifle prone event at the South Asian Games to underline his growing prowess in the event.

The shooter from Jammu & Kashmir, who serves with the Indian Army, has been in great form since the 35th National Games in Thiruvananthapuram last year. Going into the final this afternoon, he was placed second behind Narang with a card of 625.7 points.

Narang, having shot a record 628.9 points in qualification, was undoubtedly the man to beat in the final, which, anyway, turned out to be a topsy-turvy affair right from the start. Chain Singh and Umar Siddique of Pakistan shared the lead after initial three shots, as Narang fell behind marginally with a 9.7 from his second shot.

Siddique continued to remain in the lead after the second round as Chain Singh suffered a slump, managing only a 9.5 and 9.7 from is fifth and sixth shots. Narang with a fine 10.8 and 10.5 in the third sequence was back in the lead after the third round and stayed right there through the next two rounds before Chain Singh forged ahead after the sixth.

 

With only a narrow lead, Chain Singh held on to his nerve through the remaining part of the final to card 204.6 points as against Narang’s 203.7. Siddique, the early leader who was the last to be eliminated before the final series, was placed third with 182.2.

With Surendra Singh Rathod compiling 616.9 in qualification, India had little difficulty in garnering the team gold for the event with a total of 1871.5 points. Pakistan finished second with 1838.2, while Sri Lanka (1625.7) was third.

Elsewhere too, the Indians held sway as Samaresh Jung led the home team to a 1-2-3 finish in the men’s 25m centre-fire pistol, for which the team title was held back on account of lack of sufficient entries. There were only two teams – India and Pakistan – in the fray.

Jung returned a total of 580 after touching 293 in precision and scoring 287 in rapid.

Pemba Tamang won the silver in the event with 579, but Vijay Kumar was involved in a shoot-off with Mustafa Ghulam and Maqbool Hussain for the bronze medal. The trio had identical scores of 577 at the end of the competition before Vijay Kumar took the decider, scoring 48 as against 47 compiled by both his Pakistani rivals.

It proved to be an easy outing for India yet again in the women’s 50m rifle prone as Kuheli Gangulee, Lajja Gauswami and Anuja Jung provide the host nation with its second clean sweep of the day. Kuheli took the gold medal with a score of 619.9 over 60 shots while Lajja and Anuja finished in that order with totals of 608.2 and 607.5 respectively.

The trio’s combined total of 1835.6 also helped India to win the team gold medal in the event. Pakistan (1805.4) finished second, while Sri Lanka (1801.8) was third.

The results:

Men – 50m rifle prone: 1. Chain Singh (Ind) 204.5, 2. Gagan Narang (Ind) 203.7, 3. Umar Siddique (Pak) 182.2. Team: 1. India 1871.5, 2. Pakistan 1638.2, 3. Sri Lanka 1825.7.

25m centre-fire pistol: 1. Samaresh Jung (Ind) 580, 2. Pemba Tamang (Ind) 579, 3. Vijay Kumar 577.

Women – 50m rifle prone: 1. Kuheli Gangulee (Ind) 619.9, 2. Lajja Gauswami (Ind) 608.2, 3. Anuja Jung (Ind) 607.5. Team: 1. India 1835.6, 2. Pakistan 1805.4, 3. Sri Lanka 1801.8.

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