Medals proved elusive for the Indian shooting team for the third day in succession in the Asian Games here on Wednesday.
With the Indian team unable to open its account in the tally of gold medals — after having won 14 in the recent Commonwealth Games — it is but natural to fondly look back on Jaspal Rana's haul of three gold medals in the last edition in Doha in 2006.
Samaresh Jung missed the men's 25-metre standard pistol bronze by one point, following a 569. He subsequently placed seventh as four shooters with 570 had a shoot-off for the bronze.
Samaresh started well with 194 in the 150-second series, but could not keep up that form in the 20-second and 10-second series where he collected 189 and 186 points respectively.
Interestingly, that was 10 points more than what he had at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last month.
The gold went to Seonghwan Hong of Korea at 575. With Pemba Tamang, a specialist rapidfire shooter and C.K. Chaudhary shooting 550 and 549, India finished fourth — 22 points behind the bronze medallist, and 40 points behind the gold. Rana had won the gold in the last edition with 574 and had taken the team to the silver, despite his two teammates, including Samaresh, shooting 558.
“Chaudhary had a washout as the trigger went off. But it was a miserable performance, except for Samaresh who is capable of shooting 580. All are capable of an average of 575,” said national coach Sunny Thomas.
With Korea winning the individual and team events in standard pistol, its tally of gold went to 10, bettering its previous best collection of seven in 1986 in Seoul.
There was not much cheer for the Indian camp in the women's 50m rifle 3-position event either.
Tejaswini Sawant (569), Lajja Gauswami (569) and Chetanpreet Nilon (559) saw India finish ninth among 12 teams as they struggled to cope with the wind that kept changing direction.
Tejaswini had 196 in prone, but rounds of 185 and 188 in standing and kneeling positions did not help her cause. In fact, standing proved to be the Achilles heel for all three Indian shooters.
Wang Chengyi of China won the gold with a total of 682.9 following a qualification score of 584. It was her third gold medal in Guangzhou and fifth gold overall in the Asian Games.
Elaheh Ahmadi of Iran was 1.5 points behind the gold medallist after having conceded a two-point lead before the final, and became the first Iranian to win an individual shooting medal at the Asian Games. It was her third medal in Asian Games, with the other two being team medals.
The pistol and rifle events will conclude on Thursday with the centrefire pistol and 50m rifle 3-position for men.
Action will shift to the shotgun range thereafter.
“Hopefully we will get back to winning medals tomorrow,” said Thomas.
India has collected three silver medals and one bronze so far in the shooting events.
The results: Men: 25m standard pistol: 1. Seonghwan Hong (Kor) 575; 2. Jong Su Kim (PRK) 573; 3. Jin Yongde (Chn) 570; 7. Samaresh Jung 569; 22. Pemba Tamang 550; 23. C. K. Chaudhary 549. Team: 1. Korea 1708; 2. China 1707; 3. DPR Korea 1690; 4. India 1668.
Women: 50m rifle 3-position: 1. Wang Chengyi (Chn) 682.9 (584); 2. Elaheh Ahmadi (Iri) 681.4 (582); 3. Wu Liuxi (Chn) 680.1 (578); 23. Tejaswini Sawant 569; 24. Lajja Gauswami 569; 31. Chetanpreet Nilon 559. Team: 1. China 1733; 2. Korea 1728; 3. Iran 1719; 9. India 1697.
