Sport - Shooting   

Jaspal makes it to air pistol final

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. He is one of the best pistol shooters of the world. However, Jaspal Rana hardly reminds us about his status among the elite in world level competitions. For, his recent exploits have been restricted to the Commonwealth Games.

For someone who had won the junior gold in the World Championship in Milan in 1994, apart from the individual gold in the centrefire pistol event in the Hiroshima Asian Games the same year, Jaspal has not been able to rise to his own high standards in recent times.

Shrugging off his indifferent form, Jaspal not only made it to the final of the air pistol event in the ongoing shooting World Cup in Changwon, Korea, but also took the fifth spot.

Jaspal shot a 579 in the preliminary phase with a sequence of 98, 97, 96, 94, 97 and 97. He had conceded a five-point lead to Wojciech Knapik of Poland, and that proved decisive eventually, though Jaspal shot the second best score of 99.1 in the final.

While Jaspal took the fifth spot with a 678.1, following rounds of 9.9, 10.0, 10.1, 9.6, 10.0, 10.7, 9.3, 10.1 and 10.4 in the 10-shot final, the Polish shooter took the gold and the Olympic quota place 0.3 points ahead of Kun Xu of China, with a total of 683.

Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic took the bronze with a 679.3. Both Knapik and Xu had shot a 584 in the preliminary series and Tenk had a 583.

Vladimir Guchsha of Kazakhstan shot the best total in the final with a 99.4, but was fourth, 0.3 points ahead of Jaspal.

Samaresh Jung, who holds the national record at 584, was ninth with a 578. He had rounds of 95, 96, 99, 94, 97 and 97.

Samaresh had missed the free pistol medal and a quota place for the Athens Olympics by 0.1 and 0.4 points respectively, on Wednesday.

Ronak Pandit was joint 33rd with a 571 in a field of 50 shooters, following a sequence of 91, 96, 94, 99, 94 and 97.

After a few close calls and miscalculations of current form, the Indian team may eventually strike in the women's sport rifle 3-position event, through the trusted combination of Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat, Deepali Deshpande and Suma Shirur.

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