Shooting Results of Asian Games Day 1

Mix Day for the Indian Shooters

Unlike the Commonwealth Games, where every medal in the shooting arena came to the Indians, the Indian shooters at Guangzhou today had a tough time. Out of Six medal events today, India could just manage two Silvers, courtesy Gagan Narang.

Gagan Narang won the first individual medal for India after winning Silver in the Men’s 10 M Air Rifle scoring 700.7 points. China’s Qinan Zhu with a score of 702 points won the Gold while Kiwon Kim of S.Korea settles for the Bronze with a score of 700 points. In the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Gagan Narang with a record breaking score of 703.6 points clinches Gold for India in the same event. However the much hype Olympic Gold Medalist Abhinav Bindra fails to qualify for the final finishing 10th even below Sanjeev Rajput.

In Men’s 10 M Air Rifle Team, the Indian trio of Narang, Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput had to settle for Silver scoring 1783, a point lower than the Chinese Gold Medalist trio – Qinan Zhu, Jikang Yu and Yifei Cao. Scoring 1780 points the Korean team won the Silver.

However other Indian shooters could not carry on the with Commonwealth Games’ triumph and falter in all the four other shooting events today. The Pistol team, led by Omkar Singh, who won Three Golds and Silver in the Delhi CWG could not make a podium finish in Guangzhou on the first day in both Men’s 50 M Pistol and Men’s 50 M Pistol team. In the single event, he was placed 7th while teammate Amanpreet and Deepak finish 16th and 28th respectively. The Gold went to Qifeng Pu of China, Silver to Jongoh of S.Korea and Bronze to Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan.

In the team events the Indian trio finishes 5th while the Korean team comprising Jongoh Jin, Sangdo Lee and Daemyung Lee gave Korea its first Shooting Gold. The Chinese settle with a Silver while the Japanese team clinch the Bronze medal.

The Indian women shooters too falter with none making a podium finish. In Women’s 10m Air Rifle, World Champion Tejaswini Sawant made a disappointing finish at 33rd place scoring 390 points while Suma Shirur and Kavitha Yadav finish 10th and 28th respectively. With just one bulls eye miss in the qualifying round, Siling Yi of China won the Gold scoring a total of 504.9 while Liuxi Wu, another Chinese won the Silver scoring 502.8 points. Nur Mohamed Taibi, another CWG star from Malaysia had to settle for the Silver with a score of 501.8.

In the team event of Women’s 10m Air Rifle, the Middle East countries of Iran and Uzbekistan sprang up a surprise by winning Silver and Bronze respectively while the Chinese did not compromise with the Gold. The Indian trio finish 7th with a score of 1176.

With the standard of competition, it’s time that the Indian Shooters rises their level and proof to the World that the CWG triumph was not a fluke and they are capable of repeating it anywhere in the World.