The Hindu : Rajyavardhan misses quota

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Rajyavardhan misses quota

NEW DELHI JUNE 30. Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore missed the Olympic quota place in double trap by two points as he fired a 177 in the shotgun World Cup that concluded in Granada, Spain, on Saturday.

Rathore shot a 47, 45, 46 in identical fashion like the Chinese Binyuan Hu in the qualifying series, but could muster only a 39 in the final. The Chinese shot a 41 to clinch the bronze and the Olympic quota.

Walton Eller of the US and Russell Mark of Australia took the gold and silver with scores of 185 and 182 respectively. They had already clinched the quota places. Eller shot a 46 in the final, five points better than the next best.

Major Rathore won the shoot-off for the fourth place 10-9 against Joonas Olkkonen of Finland, who had also won the quota place in the World Championship back home in Lahti.

There were only five shooting in the final, as Luca Marini of Italy with the sixth best total of 137 did not compete.

In the World Cup held in March here in Delhi, six of the finalists had an identical score of 141 in double trap. Rathore grabbed the bronze then with a 185, beating Daniele Di Spigno of Italy 11-10 in the tie-shoot, when Ahmed Almaktoum of the United Arab Emirates had walked away with the gold and the quota place with a 187. Adam Vella of Australia who took the silver then had already clinched the quota in the previous World Cup back home in Perth.

Coming back to Granada, Gaurav Sondhi was 41st with a 123, following rounds of 40, 44 and 39 while Ronjan Sodhi shot a 114 with a series of 39, 41 and 34 to be joint 62nd among 72 shooters.

Meanwhile, in women's skeet, Arti Singh was joint 25th with a 64 out of 75, following efforts of 23, 21 and 20 in the three rounds.

Ning Wei of China took the gold with a 96 out of 100, as she beat Svetlana Demina of Russia 4-3 in the shoot-off. Veronique Girardet-Allard of France was third with a 95.

In men's skeet, Naveen Jindal was joint 96th with a 111 out of 125, following rounds of 20, 22, 23, 23 and 23. The other Indian shooter, Harinder Singh Bedi was joint 110th with a 107, with rounds of 23, 22, 20, 22, 20 in a field of 118 shooters.

Valeri Shomin of Russia took the gold with a world record, a perfect 150. Ennio Falco of Italy pipped Heikki Meriluoto of Finland in the shoot-off 8-7, for the silver, after four had tied at 147, but the latter took the quota place along with the bronze.

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