KUALA LUMPUR, September 20: Poor cards on the last two rounds of the individual Air Pistol events' qualifying round in the morning cost Jaspal Rana his third gold medal. But it still meant a great performance from the 22-year-old who won two gold and two silver. India finished with one of its best ever hauls of four gold, two silver and one bronze.Jaspal was seven shots ahead of Michael Gault, who is exactly twice his age, and this lead was built on the terrible first card 92 from the Englishman. But then in the last two rounds it was Jaspal's turn to falter with a 93 and 95, while Gault shot 96 and a perfect 100, the only one of the day to give him a score of 579 as against Jaspal's 578.Gault not only made up the deficit but went one point ahead into the eight-man final. In the final, Jaspal again lapsed in concentration and shot only 99.4, while Gault went ahead with a score of 100.9 (a bulls eye in the final is worth 10.9 points). The low score not only allowed the gold to get away, but also enabledthird placed Gregory Yelavich, a Russian-born shooter wearing New Zealand colours to catch up with Jaspal. Gault tallied 679.9 for a new Games record erasing Jean Pierre Huot's mark of 672.4 - Huot was 17th in the qualifying today. Jaspal was at 677.4 the same as Yelavich. So, for the second day running, Jaspal went into a shoot-out, this time for a silver. Fortunately, he came out better in the tie-shoot with 9.2 as against Yelavich's 8.4.The silver was Jaspal's second in Air Pistol, where he had finished second in Pairs event, too, with Satendra Kumar. Meanwhile Satendra Kumar did well to get to the eight-man final but then ended fifth with a total of 572 plus 96.7 for an overall 668.7.AP Subbiah and TC Palangappa disappointed in the men's individual free rifle competition finishing 14th and 20th in the qualifying. The gold went to Timonty Lowndes of Australia.RESULTS:Men's individual air pistol:1. Michael Gault (England) 679.9;2. Jaspal Rana (India) 677.4;3. GregoryYelavich (New Zealand) 677.5. Satendra Kumar (India) 668.7.Men's individual free rifle 3 positions:1. Timothy Lowndes (Australia) 1,235.3;2. Wayne Sorensen (Canada) 1,234.4; 3. Kenneth Parr (England) 1,225.6. AP Subbiah (India) 1,113 14th in qualifying; TC Palangappa (India) 1,098 20th in qualifying . (Did not make the eight-man final).
