Off-colour shooters win 2 out of 4 Gold, set one record

Colombo, Aug 26 (UNI) Imran Khan won the 50m rifle three position Gold and then helped India win the team Gold with a new record but gremlins crept into the machine as Indian shooters signed off on a rather poor note, managing just two of the four Gold up for grabs on the final day of the competition in the ongoing 10th SAF Games here today.

Before bidding adieu, the Indian shooters, however, created a new Games record in 50m rifle three positions team event.

The Lankan Navy base was in fact reverberating with the Indian top gun setting the range on fire and shooting medals galore since the event kicked off on August 19. The ending, however, didn't go down the way they would have liked.

Imran Khan, however, ensured that India return with couple of Gold medals to end their SAF Games campaign.

In 50m rifle three position, Imran fired 390 (98, 96, 97, 99) in prone, 379 in standing (96, 96, 93, 94) and 377 (95, 95, 93, 94) in kneeling to aggregate 1146 and then shot 95 (10.4, 8.9, 8.9, 9.1, 10, 8.7, 9.5, 10.3, 10.2, 9) to amass 1241 for the Gold.

Compatriot Manoj Kumar finished with the Silver shooting 1228 (388+371+379+90), while Sri Lankan Mangala Samarakoon (1219.4) bagged the Bronze.

India's best show came in the 50m rifle three position team event where they created a new Games record. Imran (1146) got good support from Manoj (1138) and Sushil Ghaley (1123) and the Indian total of 3407 was good enough for the Gold, as well as to create a new meet record, erasing the 3405 mark set by fellow Indians in the 2004 Islamabad Games.

Earlier, in men's 25m Standard Pistol event, Pakistani M M Tabassum (562) upset C K Chaudhary (556) and Ashok Pandit (555) to clinch the Gold and the Indian duo had to be content with the Silver and Bronze medals respectively.

Tabassum, however, fell short of Jaspal Rana's 2004 record of 771, created in the Islamabad edition of the Games.

Pakistan repeated the feat in the team event as well where the trio of Tabassum (562), Mustaqeem Shan (550) and Irshad Ali (548) joined hands to aggregate 1660 and clinch the Gold.

C K Chaudhary (556) and Ashok Pandit (555) kept India in the Gold hunt but Kanchan Gurung's (543) below-par show was reflected in the team total and India had to finish with the Silver at 1654. The Sri Lankan trio came third in the event.

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