Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar emphasised his versatility by winning the centre fire pistol bronze in the 13th Asian shooting championship that concluded in Kuwait City on Wednesday. In fact, it could have been a better medal but the 30-year-old Vijay, after being tied on 584 with Pongpol Kulchairattana of Thailand, lost the shoot-off for the silver 48-49.
The gold went one point higher at 585 to Jang Dae Kyu of Korea. Vijay had recovered from 287 in the precision series with an impressive 297, the best in the rapid fire section. The Indian team missed the gold to Korea by two points, with Samaresh Jung faring below his best with a 572 while Pemba Tamang chipped in with 580.
Swapnil Kusale had earlier won the individual and team gold in the junior men’s rifle 3-position event on Tuesday, to enhance the rich haul for the Indian team that eventually wound up with 17 gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze medals.
Despite repeated notices from the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), about the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revoking the Olympic quota places from the championship, owing to Kuwait Olympic Association being suspended for government interference, the organisers listed the Olympic quota winners. It included six Indians, Pooja Ghatkar, Heena Sidhu, Lajja Gauswami, Sanjeet Rajput, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Neeraj Kumar, in the list displayed on the official website Kuwait Shooting Federation.
The ISSF has stated that an additional Asian Olympic quota championship would be organised in due course of time, to distribute the 35 Olympic quota places for the continent, for the Rio Olympics.
The results:
Men:
25m centre fire pistol: 1. Jang Dae Kyu (Kor) 585; 2. Pongpol Kulchairattana (Tha) 584 (49); 3. Vijay Kumar 584 (48); 7. Pemba Tamang 580; 14.Samaresh Jung 572.
Team: 1. Korea 1738; 2. India 1736; 3. Vietnam 1731.
25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Li Yuehong (Chn) 34 (585); 2. Zhang Fusheng (Chn) 32 (576); 3. Kim Jun Hong (Kor) 28 (586); 5. Neeraj Kumar 11 (577); 12. Vijay Kumar 570; 17. Akshay Suhas Astaputre 565. OOC: Gurpreet Singh 571.
Team: 1. China 1740; 2. Korea 1732; 3. India 1712.
Junior men: 1. Park Jungwoo (Kor) 31 (573); 2. Jang Ji Won (PRK) 23 (557); 3. Youn Jinwon (Kor) 19 (573); 4. Shivam Shukla 11 (557); 5. Rushiraj Barot 10 (556); 9. Arjun Das 534. OOC: George Thomas 514.
Team: 1. Korea 1698; 2. India 1647; 3. Thailand 1616.
50m rifle 3-position: Junior men: 1. Swapnil Kusale 453.3 (1151); 2. Wang Ce (Chn) 449.8 (1153); 3. Mohammad Hossein Karimi (Iri) 438.6 (1163); 6. Akkhil Sheoran 404.2 (1134); 13. Ishan Goel 1105.
Team: 1. China 3450; 2. India 3390; 3. Korea 3383.
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