Gagan Narang stumbled at the start and finish and had to settle for two silver medals as India opened its shooting campaign on a healthy note in the Asian Games here on Saturday.
Zhu Qinan got the smile back on his face, after the tearful farewell in the Beijing Olympics, when he won two gold medals for China with a solid performance.
On a day when Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra had to endure the ignominy of a ‘7' on his 42nd shot that spoilt his chances in the individual event as well as a gold for the team by one point, Narang shot with authority to capture the individual silver 1.3 points behind the Chinese in a riveting final.
Having started the qualification with a ‘9', Narang did well to arrest an alarming sequence when he dropped two more points in the second series. He shot four successive series of 100s to end up with 597 and one point behind the Athens Olympics champion Qinan.
Fighting back
To his credit, Narang fought his way to take a 0.2 point lead after the sixth shot in the final. It was here that Qinan revealed his class by shooting 10.6, 10.7, 10.7 and 10.4 to overtake Narang in the final stretch. The Chinese pulled level with Narang with the seventh shot and widened his lead from 0.2 to 0.6 and finally 1.3.
Hasty shot
Narang said he wanted to outshine the Chinese, but was undone by a “hasty” last shot. The Indian shooter, however, pointed out that even if he had come up with a perfect 10.9 in his final shot, the Chinese would have won.
Bindra did contest that the ‘7' was not the correct score, but was honest to admit that he was not too sure whether to make a protest. In case of a protest not being upheld, there was a danger of losing two points on penalty. Bindra felt upset about losing the team gold after shooting on par with Sanjeev Rajput for a 593.
Commending Narang's performance, Bindra said it was a creditable effort and the colour of the medal always depended on the day.
While Rajput missed the final berth by 0.1 point in the shoot-off, when five had tied at 593 for the last three slots, Bindra said there was no intensity for him anymore as he had already lost the chance to win the competition. He had shot a series of 100, 99, 99, 100, 97 and 98.
Omkar seventh
At the 50-metre range, Omkar Singh did well to make the free pistol final with a score of 557 and ended up seventh with a below-par fare in the 10-shot final. Hot favourite Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan was pushed to the third spot after a preliminary score of 556 by the Chinese Pu Qifeng and Korean Jin Jongoh.
In women's air rifle, Suma Shirur shot 596 to be placed 10th in a field of 54. However, Tejaswini Sawant and Kavitha Yadav could not cross 590 and the team eventually finished seventh.
China showed its firepower by clinching five of the six gold medals and was pushed to the silver by Korea in the free pistol team event.
