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Journalism of Courage
Indian bullets have finally hit the bull8217;s eye. And it had to be the old warhorse Jaspal Rana who made it possible.
Following days of silver and bronze, finally Rana shot gold at the 25m standard pistol competition, hitting home 192, 190 and 192 for the three stages for a gold total of 574.
The silver went to Park Byun Taek of Korea 571 and the bronze to Vladimir Issachenko of Kazakhstan 570.
Besides Rana8217;s gold, India got a silver and two bronze today.
It was a familiar sight, Rana with the gold, a memory from the Hiroshima Games where he won gold 1994. He also won silver at the 1998 Bangkok Games. Sadly enough, the event is not the Olympic level.
The other interesting development today was that of Gagan Narang finally making it into the medals bracket, a bronze in the men8217;s 50m rifle three position, puling even his team to a bronze. Narang shot 1162 396 in prone, 391 standing and 375 kneeling in the qualifiers and 99.9 in the finals the finish behind China8217;s Fu Zhang 117098 and Lei Zhang 1165101.8.
Rana8217;s medal was more creditable because he had been down with a fever. 8220;I have been sick for three days, with fever and I feel dizzy, even now and tired. I had a medicine which I took from official doctors for the fever at 4am today and could sleep a little. But even with this headache, I feel happy.8221;
He also had a few complaints, carried from back home, saying that he had not been able to avail of all facilities offered by the Sports Authority of India. 8220;I did not even attend their camp because my coach Tibor Goncgol was part of it.8221; He also hinted that he had been taunted by an official back home a few days back, and this probably was his way of replying to that.
He also pulled his team 8212; others being Ronak Pandit and Samresh Jung 8212; to the silver medal.
He said he was 8220;sure of the gold8221; after the 20-second stage. 8220;It was then I was sure I would be able to do it.8221;
For Narang it was a double treat, the bronze his first medal at the Asian Games finally was proof of his class and the team bronze along with Sanjeev Rajput and Imran Khan, was a further testimony of the talent that this event has.
It was a tough climb for Narang, having finished fifth in qualification. 8220;I was in a difficult position after the qualifying, especially since I was not good with kneeling. It is sad that I was not getting top scores in qualification,8221; he said. Thereafter, he said, he stopped talking about the competition and concentrated on his technique.
