It was a close race all the way. And finally, luck stayed with 21-year-old Anjum Moudgil as she warded off the challenge of teammate Elizabeth Susan Koshy by the narrowest of margins in the women’s 50m rifle 3-positions at the SAA complex, Kahilipara, on Saturday.
The fourth day of the shooting competitions of the 12th South Asian Games witnessed yet another clean sweep by India as it finished with the gold medals in individual and team events of all the three disciplines gone through. Its seasoned shooters have only lost one title out of the seven decided so far.
The focus seemed to centre on Elizabeth in the 3 positions event initially even though it was Anjum who had the best card of 580 in the morning qualification. This was, perhaps, due to the manner in which the Kerala shooter took the lead early in the kneeling round, scoring 50.3 and 51.2 through the first two series.
Elizabeth, unable to keep the good work going, fell behind Anjum at the end of the third series only to regain the lead through the next three series from prone position. But the Kochi girl was way off the mark in the standing series to help Anjum get back into the front.
The Chandigarh shooter stayed ahead of Elizabeth and Lajja Gauswami, who eventually settled for the bronze medal after being forced to make her exit after the 11th round with a score of 429.9.
Into the final shot, Anjum had a card of 444.2 as against Elizabeth’s 442.6. And, for a moment Anjum looked as if she had lost it when she shot a poor 8 leaving Elizabeth with an even chance to finish with the gold medal.
Elizabeth had to find a mark of 9.7 to overcome her rival, but managed only 9.3 which left Anjum a deserving winner by a margin of 0.3 points.
“I am delighted that I was able to win such a close race, as I have often lost the title with my last two shots. As I looked up as saw the score of 8 off my last shot, I was quite disappointed as Elizabeth is a capable shooter when left with the chance to fight the odds.
“I was praying as she took the shot and was relieved when I suddenly realised that I was the winner of the gold medal,” Anjum said.
India also took the team gold medal in the event with a total of 1726 points which besides the contribution of Anjum was made up of the 576 scored by Elizabeth and Lajja Gauswami’s 568 in the qualification round. Sri Lanka stood second with 1686 and Pakistan third with 1656.
In the 25m pistol, the home team had a clean sweep in the individual event as Rahi Sarnobat won over Annuraj Singh 8-2 in the final and Anisa Sayyed shot out Farhat Nasreen (Pakistan) by a similar score in the bronze medal match.
In the team event, India with 1741 points finished streets ahead of Sri Lanka (1654) for the gold medal. Pakistan took bronze with 1631.
The Indian domination continued in the 10m range as well as Omkar Singh took the gold medal in the individual event of the men’s air pistol as he finished ahead of Pakistan’s Kaleemullah with a card of 198.8 in the final. Jitendra Vibhute won the bronze for the home team with 175.1 after Gurpreet Singh, the third Indian entrant, was eliminated after 12 shots.
The results:
Men: 10m air pistol: 1. Omkar Singh (Ind), 583, 198.8, 2. Kaleemullah (Pak), 569, 198.1, 3. Jitendra Vibhute (Ind), 576, 175.1.
Team: 1. India, 1735, 2. Pakistan, 1700, 3. Sri Lanka, 1663.
Women: 25m pistol: 1. Rahi Sarnobat (Ind), 2. Annuraj Singh (Ind), 3. Anisa Sayeed (Ind).
Team: 1. India, 1741, 2. Sri Lanka, 1654, 3. Pakistan, 1631.
50m rifle 3 positions: 1. Anjum Moudgil (Ind), 580, 452.2, 2. Elizabeth Susan Koshy (Ind), 576, 451.9, 3. Lajja Gauswami (Ind), 568, 429.9.
Team: India, 1726, 2. Sri Lanka, 1686, 3. Pakistan, 1631.
