Anjali, Anees bow out meekly

Indians have made their exit from badminton, table tennis, shooting, weightlifting, rowing, judo and swimming.

India’s tag of also-rans continued with woman rifle shooter Anjali Vedpathak, who had an impressive outing in the air rifle event in which she became the first Indian to make the final, and rider Imtiaz Anees turning in listless displays.

India’s last shooting medal hope Anjali finished 33rd among 42 competitors in the women’s small-bore rifle 3-position event by tallying 566 out of a possible 600 points.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anjali had entered here to give herself a greater exposure of the international competition, and a placing of 33 in a field of 42 was a modest score considering it was not her favourite event.

Anjali did not disappoint scoring 98 out of 100 in the first round and followed it up with another 98 for a total of 196/200 in prone.

The Indian markswoman fired 92 and 93 for 185 in standing and 92 and 93 for another 185 in kneeling for an aggregate of 566 out of possible 600.

The gold was won by Renata Mauer-Rozanska of Poland with a total of 684.6 points after firing 99.6 in the final round. The Polish woman had aggregated 585 in the preliminary rounds.

Russians completed the 2-3 positions with Tatiana Goldobina 680.9 (585+95.9) taking silver while Maria Feklistova 679.9 (582+97.9) settling for bronze.

Anjali’s exit brought down the curtains on India’s unsuccesful campaign at the shooting range.

Teenaged rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra had finished an impressive joint eleventh in the men’s air rifle event after failing to make the cut for the final by just one point while trap shooter Anwar Sultan secured a lowly joint 26th position in the men’s 75-bird event.

Rider imtiaz anees, who qualified literally at the eleventh hour, was placed 25th in a field of 31 in dressage on the first day of the three-day equestrian individual competitions.

Astride Spring Invader’, Anees collected total penalty points of 61.00 to be placed lower down the table.

The field was led by David O’Connor of the United States with 29 points, followed by Marina Koehnicke of Germany (34.80) and Heidi Antikatzidis of Greece (37.40).

Anees will have to improve drastically in the last two days to entertain hopes of a medal.