The adage that form is temporary but class is permanent was reiterated when the seasoned Vijay Kumar won the 25m centre fire pistol event in the shooting competitions of the 35th National Games here on Tuesday.
The Army shooter, a silver medallist at 2012 London in rapid pistol and who had suffered loss of form last year, looked set to have his fortunes on the upswing once again as he struck gold on Tuesday afternoon with a total of 583 points through the two rounds of competition — precision and duel.
Vijay had a score of 291 in precision before he returned to post 292 in the duelling round and to finish with a clear seven-point lead over second-placed Samresh Jung (Himachal Pradesh). Pemba Tamang (Services) was involved in a shoot-off with team-mate Gurpreet Singh before winning bronze.
Chain Singh won a second gold medal for Services as he outgunned his rivals in the final of 50m rifle prone. With consistency being his hall-mark, the Services shooter was quite in control all through the 20-shot final before finishing on top with a total of 205.8.
Shamsher Singh (Madhya Pradesh) who enjoyed a good second-half took silver with 204.6 while veteran Joydeep Karmakar (West Bengal) was third with 183.1 points.
Later, there was a lot to cheer for the Kerala camp as Elizabeth Susan Koshy ended the medal drought for her State in the sport at the Games by taking gold in the 50m women’s rifle prone with a total of 618.5 points. She had scores of 101.6, 105.3, 103.7, 100.4, 102.9 and 104.6 through the six rounds of competition as she left Meenakumari (Haryana) and Raj Choudhary (Services) trailing in the second and third spots.
Elizabeth had failed to make the cut for the final in the 10m air rifle on Monday and the reverse seemed to bring the best out of this girl who remained quite focussed right through the second relay of the competition.
Naturally, the Kerala girl was quite jubilant: “Oh! This is a great moment in my life, winning the first medal for the State in the sport at the Games,” she said unable to fight back tears.
The results: Men: 25m centre fire pistol: 1. Vijay Kumar (Ser), 583, 2. Samresh Jung (HP), 576, 3, Pemba Tamang (Ser), 575. Team: 1. Services, 1733, 2. Madhya Pradesh, 1713, 3. Haryana, 1682.
50m rifle prone: 1. Chain Singh (Ser), 205.8, 2. Shamsher Singh (MP), 204.6, 3. Joydeep Karmakar (Ben), 183.1. Team: 1. Services, 1851.9, 2. Uttar Pradesh, 1837.9, 3. West Bengal, 1837.5.
Women: 50m rifle prone: 1. Elizabeth Susan Koshy (Ker), 618.5, 2. Meena Kumari (Har), 617.8, 3. Raj Choudhary (Ser), 616.6. Team: 1. Maharashtra, 1832.8, 2. Haryana, 1830.8, 3. West Bengal, 1809.3.
