Pune’s Priya Agarwal wins gold with class shooting
Gun For Glory Academy shooter Heena Sidhu wins pistol gold medal
Pune, August 9: Asian air gun team gold medallist Priya Agarwal gave Pune city its first gold medal of the Gun For Glory Shooting championship when she bested a class competition that had world record holder Suma Shirur and 2009 Champion of Champions Anjali Bhagwat at the Balewadi Ranges on Tuesday.
In the four ISSF ranking finals for medals made with the original metals, Priya who began the women’s 10m air rifle final on level with Suma at 397, was up to the task shooting eight 10s for a total of 103.4 while Suma could just manage 100.6 that put her in the bronze medal position.
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Even though Anjali fired a perfect final of all 10s, she could not put herself in the medal winning position, while Uttar Pradesh youngster Aayushi Gupta sneaked ahead of Suma with a total of 497.7 to grab the silver medal.
“It has been a dream to win it front of home crowd,” said Priya, who represents Railways at the national level.
With two vacant berths up for grabs from the 2012 Asian Championship in Doha for the London Olympic Games, this kind of scoring gives hope for a better future for the Indian women rifle shooting.
Heena wins for Gun for Glory
Pistol shooter Heena Sidhu, who is in her final year to become a dentist, showed her precision on a different stage when she won the women’s 10m air pistol event with an impressive score of 489.1 after firing 102.1 in the final. Commonwealth Games silver medallist Heena was the most steady shooter in the final after having started at 387, five points ahead of Olympic berth holder Annu Raj Singh of Air India and Shweta Chaudhary of ONGC.
Shweta began sedately but towards the end of the final series, she fired good scores to push Annu Raj down to the third position—that defined the kind of competition one can expect in the final qualification tournament in Doha early next year.
Om Prakash, Aribam win in men’s section
In the men’s section, Om Prakash of Army won ahead of Omkar Singh of Navy, who had two point lead going into the final. Prakash posted 100.3 for an aggregate of 676.3 while Omkar, who had maintained a nice cushion till seventh shot before two back-to-back 8s pegged him down.
London berth holder Vijay Kumar SM had qualified eighth, but struggled throughout after a fine opening shot before he misfired the 10th to end in campaign here on a sour note.
Men’s air rifle event was a battle between two army men with Aribam Dicky Sharma edging ahead of Parmendra Kumar. The 19-year-old Aribam shot 101.5 in the final to add to his qualification round of 593 to tally a total of 694.5. Parmendra Kumar, who too had 593 was a tad below in the final as he tallied 100.4. Navy’s PT Raghunath settled for the bronze medal with a total of 692.5.
Results:
10m Air Rifle
Men: 1. Aribam Dicky Sharma (Army) (593, 101.5) 694.5, 2. Parmendra Kumar (Army) (593, 100.4) 693.4, 3. PT Raghunath (Navy) (591, 101.5) 692.5.
Women: 1. Priya Agarwal (Rlys) (397, 103.4) 500.4, 2. Aayushi Gupta (UP) (396, 101.7) 497.7, 3. Suma Shirur (Rlys) (397, 100.6) 497.6.
10m Air Pistol:
Men: 1. Om Prakash (Army) (576, 100.3) 676.3, 2. Omkar Singh (Navy) (578, 97.9) 675.9, 3. Deepak Sharma (AI) (575, 99.3) 674.3.
Women: 1. Heena Sidhu (Pun) (387, 102.1) 489.1, 2. Shweta Chaudhary (ONGC) (382, 96.8) 478.8, 3. Annu Raj Singh (AI) (382, 96.2) 478.2.
