Sikander Mann of Punjab grabbed the gold in men’s air pistol in the 13th Kumar Surendra Singh memorial shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, here on Monday.
The 23-year-old Sikander shot 575 and qualified in eighth place. In the final, however, he led from start to finish over 20 shots to beat Deepak Sharma of Air-India by 2.3 points.
Sikander made a brisk start to the final with his first six shots giving him a solid platform. And he maintained the momentum, despite a few 9s along the way.
His penultimate shot was 9.2, which still gave him a 2.2-point lead over Deepak and he wound up with a 10.0 to ensure victory.
Deepak, sixth in qualification with 575, slipped with a 7.9 towards the end, and that put paid to his aspirations, though it did not stop him from staying 0.9 ahead of Amit Kumar Pilaniya to avoid the bronze.
Amanpreet Singh of ONGC, who was seventh with 575 in qualification, paid for a bad start in the final and was the first to be eliminated after eight shots.
Gurpreet Singh, who had won the rapid fire pistol and centre fire pistol golds, apart from the silver in standard pistol, led with 582 in qualification, but was placed fifth eventually as he missed out by 0.2 points, to Omkar Singh of Navy, who was the next to be eliminated as he lost the race for the bronze by 3.6 points.
Jung ninth
Samaresh Jung was ninth, missing the final by three points, while Vijay Kumar was 18th in a field of 151 shooters, with a total of 570.
The results:
Men’s air pistol: 1. Sikander Mann 199.4 (575); 2. Deepak Sharma 197.1 (575); 3. Amit Kumar Pilaniya 176.3 (579). Juniors: 1. Karan Pratap Singh Randhawa 570; 2. Kapil Kumar 569; 3. Sukhwinder Singh 568. Youth: 1. Shainki Nagar 567; 2. Samarjit Singh 567; 3. Sharad Sharma 564.
