Jaspal Rana way off the target

Though they failed to upset the applecart of the strong Chinese shooters, the Indian trio displayed superb skill and concentration to make it to the medal podium by winning the second medal from the shooting ranges. The coveted gold medal was expectedly claimed by the Chinese team comprising Yongiie Zhang, Hui Li and Lixin Huang who finished with 353 points while the Philippines team of Jethro Dionisio, Eric Ang and Jaime Recio took the bronze medal with a total of 331 points.

But Jaspal Rana, one of the country’s main medal hopes, put up a rather lacklustre display in the men’s 10m air pistol event finishing much too low on the final position list on day which saw the strong Chinese shooters rule the roost again.

In the team event, the Indian quartet of Rana, Samaresh Jung and Ved Prakash had to be content with the eighth position finishing with a total of 1714 points falling well short of expectations.

Mansher Singh and Manavjit Singh also did reasonably well in the men’s trap individual event finishing in the fourth and fifth position, respectively. While Mansher managed 137 points his partner Manavjit had one point less than him.

The gold medal in the trap individual event was claimed by China’s Hui Li who logged 143 points while compatriot Yongiie Zhang (142) and Jethro Dionisio (139) took the silver and bronze medals respectively. In the women’s 10m air pistol team event, the Indian trio of Shweta Choudhury, Shilpi Singh and Sheila Kanungo took the sixth position with an aggregate of 1198 and could have done slightly better had Kanungo been a little more consistent.

The Chinese trio of Luna Tao, Jie Ren and Ying Chen secured the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event with a new Asian Games record of 1156 points while the Kazakhstan and South Korean teams took the silver and bronze medals respectively.