The Hindu : Sandeep, Sachin, Ronak hog limelight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Sandeep, Sachin, Ronak hog limelight

By K.C. Vijaya Kumar

SHOOTING STRAIGHT: Sandeep Tarate (left) and Sachin Shelke, gold medal winners in the 10m air rifle senior and junior events respectively in the National shooting championship in Bangalore on Saturday. While Sandeep won the National Open championship, Sachin claimed the gold in the civilian section. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE Nov. 16. `Generation Next' is here to stay. Three 17-year-olds — Sandeep Tarate, Ronak Pandit and Sachin Shelke — fired winning volleys in the National shooting championship at the J.N. Radhakrishna Memorial Shooting Complex here on Saturday.

The Maharashtra Government's `catch them young' policy, as evident in the Krida Prabhodini scheme seems to have yielded results. And two trainees — Sandeep and Sachin — claimed two golds each in the 10m air rifle senior and junior events. Sandeep competed in the National open championship, while Sachin gunned for honours in the civilian segment.

Sandeep equalled the existing National record (Abhinav Bindra, 593, Phillaur, 1999) in the 10m air rifle junior event. Abhinav Bindra's absence may have eased Sandeep's march but it is evident that the Maharashtra lad is here to stay.

"I was confident of winning this National championship after I won gold in the all-India inter-school meet at Meerut,'' said Sandeep, while Sachin followed his footsteps in the civilian rungs.

Incidentally, Sachin's two National records (587) in the civilian segment 10m air rifle senior and junior event, erased the existing record of Sandeep (586, Indore, 2002).

Limelight also trailed Ronak Pandit as he won gold in the 25m standard pistol junior and 50m free pistol junior men events. His best, however, was in the senior men's 50m free pistol event where he moved from eighth to third and clinched bronze at 628.

"My performance in the senior 50m free pistol event was the most satisfying. You cannot ask for more, especially after you were trailing earlier,'' he said.

But more than Ronak's fight to claim bronze, Army man Mahaveer Singh's gold medal winning act at 645.7 proved to be the surprise packet. Mahaveer, a first timer in the free pistol event, lived up to his dark horse billing while galloping away with the gold. "I am aiming at the Athens Olympics,'' Mahaveer said.

On a day when youth reigned, it was apt that 14-year old Amit Kumar claimed gold and set a new National record at 536 in the 50m pistol junior event in the civilian segment. Amit beat his own record (527) set last year at Indore.

Jaspal Rana did strike a semblance of form though his gold at 570 in the 25m standard pistol event was well below his National best of 585 established at Coimbatore in 1995. "Yes I could have done better but it was a good day,'' he said.

The results:

National championship (open to Army personnel and civilians): 10m air rifle: 1. Sandeep Tarate (Krida Prabhodhini), 693.6; Sunil Kumar (Army), 690.2; 3. Manoj Kumar (Navy), 685.6.

10m air rifle team: 1. Krida Prabodhini 1752 (Sandeep Tarate 593, Fulchand Bangar 576, Navanath Fartade 583); 2. Navy 1751 (Manoj Kumar 587, Bishnu Nag 584, P.T. Raghunath 580); 3. BSF 1749 (Raj Kumar 583, Akhilesh Rai 582, H. Salim 584).

10m air rifle junior men: 1. Sandeep Tarate, 593 equalled NR, NR: Abhinav Bindra, 593, Phillaur, 1999; 2. Gagan Narang (IA), 586; 3. Imran Hasan (Army), 585.

10m air rifle junior men team: 1. Krida Prabhodhini 1752 (Sandeep Tarate 593, Fulchand Bangar 576, Navanath Fartade 583); 2. Army 1740 (Kuldip Singh 579, Imran Hasan 585, Rathod Surendra Singh 576); 3. Maharashtra 1727 (Shridhar Khetmar 574, Mangesh Mane 574, Sagar S. Kulkarni 579).

50m pistol: 1. Mahavir Singh (Army), 645.7; 2. Samaresh Jung (CISF), 643; 3. Ronak Pandit (Mah), 628.

50m pistol team: 1. Army 1620 (Mahaveer Singh 547, Kamal Singh 536, Ved Prakash 537); 2. CISF 1598 (Samaresh Jung 549, Subash Rana 531, Anubhav Dhillan 518); 3. Navy 1592 (Anil Kumar 515, Tapas K. Sikdar 542, Satendra Kumar 535).

50m pistol junior men: 1. Ronak Pandit (Mah), 535; 2. Gurjeet Singh (Army), 520; 3. Toshinder Singh (INDI), 517.

25m standard pistol: 1. Jaspal Rana (ONGC), 570; 2. Dhyan Singh (Army), 557; 3. Ashok Pandit (Mah), 555.

25m standard pistol team: 1. Army 1655 (C.K. Chaudhary 549, Dhyan Singh 557, Ved Prakash 549); 2. Maharashtra 1654 (Ashok Pandit 555, Ronak Pandit 551, Amol S. Chauhan 548); 3. BSF 1632 (V.B. Viji 539, Naresh Kumar 554, Manjunath 539).

25m standard pistol junior men: 1. Ronak Pandit (Mah), 551; 2. Zakir Khan (IA), 537; 3. Rommel Pandit (Mah), 526.

National championship restricted to civilians: 10m air rifle: 1. Sachin Shelke (Mah), 587 NR, old: Sandeep Tarate, 586, Indore, 2002; 2. Chetan Deshmukh (Rly), 582; 3. Gadmale Yogesh (Mah), 581.

10m air rifle team: 1. Railways 1735 (Chetan Deshmukh 582, Viswajeet Shinde 580, Arun Wareshi 573); 2. Maharashtra 1734 (Mangesh Mane 574, Gadmale Yogesh 581, Sagar S. Kulkarni 579); 3. Krida Prabodhini 1706 (Manmit Vilas Raut 568, Mahadev Vasant Gaikwad 575, Yuvraj Tukaram Chougale 563).

10m air rifle junior men: 1. Sachin Shelke (Mah), 587 NR, old: Sandeep Tarate, 586, Indore, 2002; 2. Prakash S. Tayade (Mah), 576; 3. Mahadev Vasant Gaikwad (Krida Prabhodhini), 575.

50m pistol: 1. P.N. Prakash (Kar), 539; 2. N. Shanmugam (TN), 534; 3. Charanjeet Singh Narula (Uttranchal), 513.

50m pistol junior men: 1. Amit Kumar (Inf. kids), 536 NR for civilians, Old: Self, 527, Indore, 2002; 2. Bapu Vanjare (Mah), 481; 3. Alok Singh (IA), 453.

25m standard pistol: 1. Sumeet Sanghavi (TN), 545; 2. Ajit Singh Ranhotra (Del), 534; 3. Rajiv Sharma (Del), 534.

25m standard pistol junior men: 1. Vineet Kumar Khosla (Del), 526; 2. Alok Singh (IA), 486; 3. Sree Krishna (Kar), 473.

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