India wins men's double trap silver

DOHA: The best of Indian shooters have not been able to breakthrough to the gold, and Olympic silver medallist Lt. Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was no exception, though he shot exceptionally well in the closing stages, at the Lusail Complex here on Tuesday.
In living up to his stature as one of the best doubletrap marksmen in the world, Rathore shot a perfect 50 in the third round to ensure his place in the final and also to aid his team to win the silver medal.
Classy show
In the final, Rathore emphasised his class yet again, and did not miss a bird in the first 20, but two Chinese ahead of him had enjoyed a good lead and hung on to that like dear life to walk away with the gold and silver. It was only a bronze for Rathore but he was easily the best in the second half of the competition when he shot a 97 out of 100.
He had conceded a five-point lead to Wang and a four-point lead to Hu. It was tough to catch up though the Chinese were shaky in the end. India took its tally to four silver and three bronze medals in shooting.
Rathore shot the best in the final, a 47 out of 50, but was one point behind the silver medallist Hu Binyuan. Wang Nan, the world championship silver medallist last year, managed to pip his compatriot by two points after having started the final with a solitary point lead.
It was a brilliant performance by Binyuan who had won the gold in 1998, and the silver in the last edition at Busan. He had finished fourth behind Rathore at the Olympics, but had won the world championship silver behind Vitaly Fokeev of Russia at Zagreb.
Rathore had rounds of 46, 43 and 50 in the preliminary phase. Ronjan Sodhi had a string of 45, 47 and 44 for a 136 and missed the final by one point. Vikram started with a 47 but slipped to 43 and 44 later. The best part was that the two shot well to carry the team along in the first two rounds when Rathore was not at his best.
The Indian team took the silver with 409 points, seven points better than the fare at the World Championship this year when the team had finished fourth, missing a medal by one point.
In 50-metre free pistol, Samaresh Jung could not conjure up any magic and finished 14th with a 550, following a series of 89, 90, 92, 93, 93 and 93. It was off his mark of 565 at Melbourne earlier this season, which incidentally is the national record. In fact, the gold went at 565 here and the Chinese proved once again their supremacy.
In women's sport pistol, India fielded Shweta Chaudhary and Sonia Rai though they had been primarily been selected for air pistol. In the event, Shweta was 21st with a 569 while Sonia was 29th with a 562. Sushma Sing holds the national record at 582, but the sports pistol team was not chosen as none met the selection criteria.
The results: Double Trap: 1. Wang Nan (Chn) 189 (144); 2. Hu Binyuan (Chn) 187 (143); 3. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore 186 (139); 7. Ronjan Sodhi 136; 10. Vikram Bhatnagar 134. Team: 1. China 424; 2. India 409; 3. Chinese Taipei 397.
Free pistol: 1. Xu Kun (Chn) 663.8 (565); 2. Rashid Yunusmetov (Kaz) 660.5 (564); 3. Jong Su Kim (PRK) 658.7 (562); 14. Samaresh Jung 550; 19. Bapu Vanjare 545; 24. Zakir Khan 541. Team: 1. China 1,682; 2. DPR Korea 1,659; 3. Korea 1,657; 7. India 1,636.

Source : Hindu