National Shooting final postponed due to bad lights

After six shooters complained that they could not see the targets clearly, as the entire six missed one or two shots in the four-second series, in which five shots are fired in one flow, organising secretary Subhash Rana announced that the final would be held on Tuesday morning.

Vijay Kumar will be trying to win the Olympic quota place in the Asian Olympic quota competition in the same range in January.

Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar could not make the final of rapid fire pistol, but more shockingly the final itself could not be conducted owing to inconsistent light on the targets, in the 59th National shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.

Ironically, the final was delayed by nearly two hours from the original schedule of 3 P.M., despite qualification series finishing just about on time. Eventually after the six shooters fired the “sighters” and complained that they could not see the targets clearly, as the entire six missed one or two shots in the four-second series, in which five shots are fired in one flow, organising secretary Subhash Rana announced that the final would be held on Tuesday morning.

It was not possible to fix the lights in such a hurry, and it was a judicious decision after different bays were scrutinised for light, to postpone the final to be shot in natural light.

The administrator of the range, Shiv Dutt Bakshi said that the teething problems would be addressed, as it was a gigantic exercise to keep the range functional and error free.

Neeraj Kumar (579), Wazeer Singh Rathee (577), Gurpreet Singh (573), Akshay Suhas Ashtaputre (571), Pemba Tamang (565) and TB Jena (565) made the final.

Vijay Kumar, who will be trying to win the Olympic quota place in the Asian Olympic quota competition in the same range in January, shot 562 and missed the final by three points. He had shot 282 overnight and added 280 in the second stage.

Rushiraj Atul Barot, who had pipped Shivam Shukla by one point for the junior gold, placed eighth among the men, behind Sunil Gurung who also shot 563.

Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mukesh Kumar shot 551 and placed 18th ahead of Harpreet Singh (550) and Jaspal Rana (548).

In women’s air pistol, Shweta Singh led with 386 following a series of 100, 97, 95 and 94. Yashaswini Singh Deswal (384), P. Shri Nivetha (382), Malaika Goel (381), Annu Raj Singh (379), Sonia Rai (379), Santa Srivastava (378), Harveen Srao (377), Gauri Sheoran (377) followed in that order with more shooters set to shoot the qualifying event before the final on Tuesday. World record holder and Olympic quota aspirant, Heena Sidhu had not entered the event.

Quite understandably, Yashaswini Deswal, Shri Nivetha and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Malaika Goel were leading among the juniors.

Results:

25m rapid fire pistol:

Junior men: 1. Rushiraj Atul Barot 563; 2. Shivam Shukla 562; 3. Achal Pratap Singh Grewal 561.