On a day when Jitu Rai failed to defend his Glasgow 2014 title in the 50m free pistol, Shreyasi Singh shot nervelessly in the women’s double trap shoot off against Australian Emma Cox to walk away with the gold at the Belmont shooting centre on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Shreyasi thus improved upon her Glasgow silver with her third appearance at the Games. It was all the more poignant as her father passed away in the run-up to New Delhi 2010, and she was hampered by severe back pain four years later.
Here again it looked likely that she would be robbed off a deserving gold, as Cox took the lead that Shreyasi held in the early rounds. She progressed second with 71 shots while Varsha Varman, the other Indian in the fray, was third with 67.
In the last round, Shreyasi shot 25 out of a possible 30, but was resigned to her fate as Cox held a seven-point lead. But the Australian only managed a poor 18 leading to a shoot off where Shreyasi got both her shots in, while Emma managed only one. Varsha was fourth with 86, one less than Linda Pearson (Scotland) who took bronze.
Earlier there was a lot of agony in the Indian camp as the men’s 50m free pistol fortunes took an unexpected turn. The focus was on Jitu Rai and expectations that he would get a second title following the 10m air pistol gold a couple of days ago.
However, nothing went right for him as Jitu just about made the final placed sixth in the low-scoring qualifiers. Om Mithrarwal — who later finished with a bronze — topped the stage with 549. Jitu had 542.
The final proved to be a nightmare for Jitu, who started with a very poor 7.3 and was the first to be eliminated with 105.0 points. Mitharwal gave some hopes as he joined the leader, Australia’s Daniel Repacholi, after 16 shots at 168.5 points but failed to sustain himself before settling for bronze with 201.1.
The results: Men: 50m pistol: 1. Daniell Repacholi (Aus), 546, 227.2, 2. Shakil Ahmed (Ban), 545, 220.5, 3. Om Mitharval (Ind), 549, 201.1. 8. Jitu Rai (Ind), 542, 105.0.
Double trap: 1. David McMath (Sco), 137, 74-GR, 2. Tim Kneale (IOM), 135, 70, 3. Ankur Mittal (Ind), 133, 53. 4. Mohammed Asab (Ind), 137, 53.
Women’s double trap: 1. Shreyasi Singh (Ind), 96 (2), 2. Emma Cox (Aus), 96 (1), 3. Linda Pearson (Sco), 87, 4. Varsha Varman (Ind), 86.
