The seasoned Anjali Bhagwat was unable to digest her score of 392 in women’s air rifle in the Sahara 56th National shooting championship on Sunday.
Having shot 397 and won the bronze medal behind two Chinese both of whom had shot world record 400 in qualification in the recent Asian Air Gun Championship in China, Anjali was in fine form.
She felt that the scoring was faulty, owing to the poor alignments of the templates in the electronic targets. Anjali observed that good shots were not getting matching scores and some times bad shots were getting good scores, possibly owing to the use of local spares in the electronic targets.
In the event, Anjali shot a score of 392 following rounds of 97, 98, 99 and 98. With Nikita Salunka, Lajja Gauswami, Pournima Zanane leading on 396, followed by the former World championship finalist Avneet Kaur Sidhu on 395 along with Raj Chaudhary and Pooja Ghatkar, it was clear that Anjali, who had taken a break from international competition after her third Olympics in Beijing in 2008, would not figure in the final on Monday.
The World champion in prone, Tejaswini Sawant was on 393 along with Shruti Bhattepatil and the talented Mampi Das, while Babbandeep Kaur of Punjab was on 394.
Ghalay in lead
In men’s 50-metre free rifle prone event, Sushil Ghalay of Army led with 593. His last shot was a ‘9’, and Ghalay felt that the sudden dip in temperature and visibility affected his score towards the end. He had a series of 99, 96, 100, 100, 99 and 99. However, his total from decimal scoring (620.4) should provide confidence for Ghalay.
Rakesh Manpat of Karnataka, Pankaj Gurung and R. Abemo Kikon of Army were on 591 while another Olympian, a specialist in 3-position and air rifle events, Sanjeev Rajput of the Navy made 588, following a series of 99, 98, 100, 96, 95 and 100.
NRAI amends constitution
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) amended its constitution to include the age and tenure clauses of the Union Sports Ministry's Sports Code, at its Special General Body meeting here on Sunday.
