Samresh Jung unlucky to lose gold in Badge competition

Melbourne, Mar 12 (UNI) Luck deserted Samresh Jung at crucial juncture as the Indian shooter missed the Men's 10m Air Pistol to England's Michael Gault in the Badge competition here today.

In men's 50m Prone Rifle championship, South African Gavin Van Rhyn won the gold in two of 20 badge matches prior to the start of the Commonwealth Games here.

Samresh displayed remarkable cool and marksmanship and Gault, a winner of eight Games gold medals, found himself tied with the Indian, but the Englishman was awarded the medal after a countback in competition at the Melbourne International Shooting Club.

When two or more shooters are tied at the completion of an event, scores at the last series of shots are counted to decide the winner.

The shooter with the highest score in the very last series is declared the winner. If the shooters are still tied after the last series, officials revert to the next previous series.

Lip Meng Po of Singapore took the bronze on a countback after he and Vivek Singh of India both finished even.

Van Rhyn, who won gold in the men's Small Bore Rifle Pairs at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998, took the gold in the 50m Prone Rifle from Grant Taylor of New Zealand and Neil Stirton of Scotland.

The silver and bronze were decided by countback after Taylor, Stirton and Wales' David Phelps all scored 591.

A total of 36 competitors took part in the event in warm and windy conditions. Some highly-rated shooters did not figure in the placings, preferring to treat the event as a practice session for the Games.

UNI HSB PDS KN1731