The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Harveen wins air pistol gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
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Sport - Athletics

Harveen wins air pistol gold

NEW DELHI: Harveen Srao won India’s first gold medal in the World University Games in Bangkok, claiming the women’s air pistol title with a tally of 486.1 points on Friday.

The 21-year-old Chandigarh shooter beat reigning Olympic champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine in the process to make it most memorable.

India, thanks to Harveen’s qualification round of 388, also had the bronze in the team championship, with Shweta Chaudhary (383) and Lakhbir Kaur (372) contributing to a tally of 1143.

Shweta and Lakhbir finished ninth and 41st respectively. Ukraine (1153) and Korea (1151) claimed the gold and silver.

Shooting has been introduced this time in the biennial games and Harveen and her teammates have possibly won the first medals for the country in the Universiade, though no confirmation could be available from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

Harveen, a junior bronze medallist in the World championships in Zagreb last year, shot 96, 99, 97 and 96 to top the qualification round with 388 and then shot 98.1 in the final round.

Kostevych, winner at Athens Olympics, had a 384 and despite a splendid final round of 99.5 could not catch up with the Punjab girl as she ended up at 483.5. Kira Mozgalova of Russia won the bronze with 481.8.

In other shooting events India fared poorly. In men’s 50m-pistol event, Amanpreet Singh was 12th with 543. Zakir Khan (538) and Nikhil Singh (523) were 19th and 28th while the team finished sixth.

India also had disappointment in other sports. In tennis, Sanaa Bhambri lost her second-round match to top- seeded Chinese Taipei girl Chan Yang-Jan 1-6, 3-6 on Friday.

On Thursday, Moroccan Hicham Llaalej beat Suresh Krishna 6-4, 6-2 in a men’s first-round match.

In swimming, Prajakta Khangan (1:08.21), though she won her heat in the 100m freestyle event, was way off the leaders. Rajni Tokas finished fifth in the heats with 1:10.70. The fastest qualifier, an American, clocked 55.48s.

In athletics, Mayooka Johnny with a leap of 5.97m failed to qualify for the final in women’s long jump and finished overall 20th out of 32 competitors.

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