Vijay Kumar shoots Bronze despite finishing 4th

Doha, Dec 6 (UNI) Thanks to the rule that doesn't allow any country sweep all three medals up for grabs, Indian shooter Vijay Kumar won the 25m rapid fire pistol Bronze, despite finishing fourth in the individual event at the 15th Asian Games here today.

But for this medal, it was a disappointing outing for the Indian markspersons, who failed to make it to the podium in the team events of the Men's 25m rapid fire pistol and women's 50m rifle 3 position.

In 25m rapid fire pistol, Vijay Kumar qualified for the final and ended fourth, as did the Indian team.

In the preliminary round, Vijay shot a total of 577 in two stages. In the first stage, he shot a series of 95,98,93 to total 286 and in the second stage, he had a score of 98, 98, 95 for 291.

Ahead of him were the Chinese trio of Liu Zhongsheng (597), Zhang Penghui (580) and Liu Guohui (579).

Two other Indians, Pemba Tamang and Rahul Panwar, were in the fray and they too cut sorry figures.

Tamang, who totalled 574 to be at 9th place, scored 288 (98,98,92) and 286 (99,96,91) in the two stages.

Panwar scored 563 to finish at 20th place. He shot 286 (100,92,94) and 277 (96,97,84) in his two stages.

In the final, Vijay Kumar shot 198.3 . His first stage score read 8.6, 10.4, 9.8, 10.7, 10.6, 9.7, 9.4, 9.6, 10.7, 8.8 and in second stage, he shot 10.4, 10.4, 10.6, 9.9, 10.2, 9.5, 9.2, 9.3, 10.4, 10.1.

Vijay's overall total of 775.3 (198.3+577) was bettered by Liu Guohui even though the Chinese shooter could not get the medal he deserved.

Liu shot 197.5 in final and his preliminary round score was 579.

Liu Zhongsheng 778.4 (199.4+579) won the Gold, followed by Zhang Penghui 778.1 (198.1+580).

The team Gold went to China with a total of 1738. Japan took the Silver (1721), Kazakhstan earned the Bronze (1720) while India, with 1714, were placed fourth.

In the women's section, the Indians flopped in 50m Rifle 3 positions, with Tejaswini Sawant ending seventh while her team mates, Deepali Deshpande and Anjali Bhagwat were placed well down the leader board at 19th and 22nd places, respectively.

The individual and team Gold in the event were won by China.

Tejaswini, however, did well to qualify for the finals while Deepali and Anjali fell by the wayside in the preliminary rounds.

Tejaswani had a total of 578 in the preliminary round and on the strength of this score, she made it to the last round as first eight qualify for the medal contest.

The Indian shooter had a superb prone round in which he shot 100,99 (199) while in standing her score was 95,91 (186) and in kneeling she shot 95,98 (193).

In the final, she shot 94.9 with a series of 7.9, 10.5, 9.0, 10.1, 9.9, 9.0, 9.5, 9.0, 9.9, 10.1 to take her aggregate to 672.9 (94.9+578).

Deepali totalled 570 -- 197(99,98) in prone, 187 (95,92,) in standing and 186 (94,92) in kneeling.

Anjali Bhagwat, who had a disappointing competition here so far, totalled a below par 569 --- 196 (98,98) in prone, 187 (95,92) in standing and 186 (95,91) in kneeling for the 22nd place.

The Gold went to China's Wang Chengyi who totalled 685.4 (100.4+585), while Kazakh Olga Dovgun won Silver with 682.3 (96.3+586) and South Korean Na Yoon Kyung took the Bronze with 680.2 (99.2+581).

The team Gold was clinched by China with 1744 points. Bahrain was the surprised Silver medal winner with 1631 while host Qatar took the Bronze with 1608.

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