Gurpreet Singh and Shweta Singh completed the Indian gold rush in the shooting competitions of the 12th South Asian Games, winning the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol and the women’s 10m air pistol respectively, on Monday.
The host claimed all but one of the 26 gold medals decided during the course of the six-day event. Bangladesh’s Ahmed Sakil had won the 50m pistol on the opening day to deny India a clean sweep.
Gurpreet had trailed his seasoned team-mate Vijay Kumar by a point in qualification (572-571). But into the final, Gurpreet was more consistent than Vijay and ended up a facile winner.
Starting off moderately with three hits in the opening sequence of the eight-round final, in which each shooter had to individually shoot five shots in four seconds, Gurpreet proceeded to score 4, 5, 4, 1, 3, 4 and 4 through the remaining seven rounds to finish on top with 28 hits.
Mustafa Ghulam Bashir (Pakistan) was second with 24 hits while Vijay, who had a wayward final, got eliminated at 20 hits.
Though Akshay Suhas Ashtapture had exited after a washout in the fourth round, his contribution of 559 in qualification together with the scores of Gurpreet and Vijay, was good enough for India to claim the team gold for the event with 1702 points.
Shweta had a score of 373 in qualification as she trailed teammates Heena Sidhu (386) and Yashwini Singh Deswal (374) into the final. And even though she was forced to shoot with her spare pistol in the crucial elimination round, the 29-year-old from Chandigarh found her touch at the right time.
The results:
Men: 25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Gurpreet Singh (Ind), 571, 28; 2. Mustafa Ghulam Bashir (Pak), 567, 24; 3. Vijay Kumar (Ind), 572, 20. Team: 1. India, 1702; 2. Pakistan, 1677; 3. Sri Lanka, 1525.
Women: 10m air pistol: 1. Shweta Singh (Ind), 373, 194.4; 2. Heena Sidhu (Ind), 386, 192.5; 3. Yashwini Singh Deswal (Ind), 374, 171.2. Team: 1. India, 1133; 2. Bangladesh, 1103; 3. Sri Lanka, 1093.
