Sonia Rana shoots bronze, Samresh finishes sixth

New Delhi, Apr 29 (UNI) Sonia Rana claimed her first international medal when she earned the bronze in the women's 10m Air Pistol even though India's ''Goldfinger'' in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games Samresh Jung Misfired and finished a poor sixth in the men's event in the ongoing ISSF World Cup at Resende in Brazil.

Sonia shot 384 (98+96+97+93) to sail into the final where she recorded 98.2 (9.9, 9.8, 9.7, 8.8, 9.8, 8.9, 10.0, 10.7, 10.2,10.4) and her total of 482.2 saw her finish third, behind Serbian Jasna Sekaric who shot 486.1 (387+ 99.1) and Chinese Li Rong Sun who aggregated 482.8 (383+99.8).

This was a much improved show by Sonia who had shot 377 to finish 40th at the World Cup in China last month.

Among her compatriots, Harveen Srao shot 382 (97+94+95+96) to finish ninth, while Shweta Chaudhary scored 377 (98+94+92+93) to finish 24th, according to information received here today.

Adjudged best athlete at the Melbourne Games, Samresh Jung was far from impressive and barely managed to reach the final as the last shooter after scoring 579 (97+96+94+97+97+98).

Samresh shot 101 in the final (9.8, 10.3, 9.6, 10.4, 10.4, 10, 10.3, 10, 10.5, 9.7) to aggregate 680 to move two rungs up and finish sixth.

Among other Indians in the fray, Jaspal Rana finished 11th with a score of 578 (94+97+97+95+97+98) while Vivek Singh finished 15th at 577 (94+97+98+94+96+98).

The gold in this event was won by Franck Dunoulin of France with a score of 687.2 (587+100.2), while the silver went to Russian Vladimir Isakov who totalled 686.9 (587+99.9) while Walter Lapeyre of France won the Bronze with a score of 684.5 (585+99.5).

Meanwhile, Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput shot 1149 and 1156 respectively to qualify for the elimination round of the 50m Rifle 3 Position event. The elimination round is shot in the 50m ranges before the qualifications.

UNI AY DH PM1504