Indians grab another shooting gold, Rathore disappoints with silver

Melbourne, Mar 19 (UNI) Pre-tournament favourites Pemba Tamang and Vijay Kumar lived up to their reputation as they clinched one more gold for India but Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore teamed up with Vikram Bhatnagar to settle for a disappointing silver in the double trap pairs event of the shooting competition at the Commonwealth Games here today.

India figured in four of the five events this morning and finished with one gold and two silvers and ended fourth in women's 10m Air Pistol pairs event.

The other silver medal winners were Anjali Bhagwat and Anuja Jung in women's 50m Rifle three position pairs. Sonia Rana and Harveen Sraoo finished fourth in women's 10m Air Pistol pairs.

Though the performance of the Indians has been satisfactory so far but this morning's show was not that impressive as they had won three golds and a silver in these four events in Manchester Games.

Pemba Tamang, who had shown good form and had performed well in the badge competition just before the srart of this tournament, was in his elements and he gave good company to Vijay Kumar as they combined well to win the gold in the 25m Rapid Fire pistol pairs.

They totalled 1134, which was 19 points less then the Games record, but was enough for the gold. Australian pair of David Chapman and Bruce Favell were far behind the Indians as they aggregated 1116 for the silver while Metodi Igorov and Yuri Movshovich representing Canada earned bronze with 1111 points.

Vijay started well as he fired 98, 94 and 98 in his first series to total 290/300 and then came up with a score of 95, 95 and 91 in the second series for 281/300 to have his own total of 571/600.

Tamang started with a 96 in his first series but his next two rounds of were uneven. He shot 93 and 92 to end it with 281/300. The army man's second series had a score of 95, 94, 93 for 282/300 which took the overall total to 563/600.

The duo's total was good enough in the given chilly conditions to earn India the gold.

However, the much anticipated men's double trap pairs event, featuring Athens Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Vikram Bhatnagar, turned out to be a wee bit disappointing as the fancied pair failed to retain the gold.

India had won the gold with a Games record total of 184 in Manchester but today they finished seven points behind the winners scoring 179.

The Games record was sunk by the Australian pair of Mark Russell and Craig William Trembath who shot a total of 186 for the gold.

Russell fired 47 and 46 in his two rounds to make it a total of 93 and then his teammate Trembath shot 46 and 47 to have an identical score of 93 taking their combine total to 186.

Rathore was not in his elements and the famed shooter missed five targets in his first series and six in his second. The Olympic silver medal winner started on the wrong foot in his first series missing five targets out of 50 and in the next he shot 44 out of 50 to end up with 89 (44, 45).

Vikram had a first series of 46 and then shot 44 in his next for a total of 90 and that fetched the pair a silver.

England's Richard Faulds 89 (45, 44) and Steven Walton 87 (47, 40) totalled 176 for the bronze.

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