Jaspal touches down smoothly

In a way, the day belonged to the armymen. For they made a clean sweep of the medals in free rifle 3 position as veteran T.C. Palangappa clinched the gold, scoring 1233, with a national record while Ashok Kumar Shahi and Charan Singh finished in that order for the silver and bronze, apart from claiming the team gold. Pallangappa’s latest mark erased his own mark of 1231.40, which he set at the Coimbatore nationals in 1995.

But Harinder Singh, though won the gold edging out Rao Inderjit Singh of Haryana by a solitary point, it was not the best he had hoped for. Harinder, who scored 136 to win the title here, holds the record of 141. Saravdeep Mann got the bronze at 131.

Jaspal had to contend with the strong wind and the experienced twosome in Bhanwar Lal Dhaka and Ajab Rao. Besides, Rao was leading by four points before the final while Dhaka by two points as Rana was placed fourth at 564. After the first course of five shots, Rana came into form with four 10 plus score while the other two were shooting below their potential.

This, as Jaspal admitted later, gave him the mental grip over the next course as he saw an opportunity of making it to the top with a similar sharp shooting. He went about the task as is his wont and managed three 10 plus scores to win the gold.

Asked whether he faced stiff competition, the Delhi shooter said that he was competing against himself. The two armymen also complimented Jaspal’s efforts and said it was a good comeback.

Poonam Kumar of the BSF, who was joint leader with Rao at 568, failed to match his earlier showing in the day and finished fourth at 659.5.

Even for Harinder Bedi it was a tough competition. The 40-year-old had to fight the windy conditions in the open and also the experienced Rao Inderjit Singh. He felt his score was certainly below his expectation but was good enough in a tough competition like this. Pallangappa’s 1140 out of 1200 in free rifle 3 position was the best by an Indian. With a commanding 16-point lead over his teammate Shahi, he went from strength to strengh to log 1233. Shahi scored 1215.6 while Charan Singh 1213.3. The last two had a similar 1124 before the start of the final.

Results
MEN:25m Rapid Fire Pistol Open: Jaspal Rana (Del) 663.2, Bhanwar Lal Dhaka (Army) 566, Ajab Rao (Army) 661.5.

Team: Army (Sanjay More, B.L. Dhaka, Ajab Rao) 1687, BSF (Munir Ahmed, Mohidner Singh, Poonam Kumar (1663, Delhi (Vivek Singh, Jaspal Rana, Rajeev Sharma) 1656.

Civilians: Sumeet H. Shangavi (TN) 549.0, Ramender Kumar Sharma (UP) 530, Amol Chauhan (Mah) 521.

Team: Tamil Nadu (Sumeet H. Sanghavi, R. Ravikrishnan, D.V. Seetharama Rao) 1553, Maharashtra (Shyam Bali, GA Sheikh, Pradeep Kumar) 1514, Delhi (Dr Raj Pal Singh, Achal Sehgal, Ramesh Kumar Tomar) 1461.

Juniors: Subhash Rana (Del) 536, Amol Chauhan (Mah) 521, Anuj Kumar (Navy) 516.

Team: Delhi (Amit Kumar Koslia, Alok Singh, Subhash Rana) 1504, Navy (Anuj Kumar, Aaj Raja, Satish Kumar) 1459, Army (Md Kalamuddin, Man Bahadur Thapa, Vijay Kumar) 1452.

Civilian: Anshumali Divedi (UP) 482.

50m Free Rifle 3P Open: T.C. Pallangappa (Army) 1233.0 (NMR, Old 1231.40), Ashok Kumar Shahi (Army) 1215.6, Charan Singh (Army) 1212.3.

Team: Army (T C Pallangappa, AP Subbiah, Ashok Kumar Shahi) 3377, BSF (Iqbal Ahmed, Raj Kumar, Kishan Singh) 3320, Navy (Pt Raghunath, Jagvir Singh, Deepak K. Subey) 3266.

Civilians: Joydeep banerjee (Rly) 1096.0, Vishvajit Shinde Rly) 1074, Sanjib Bej (WB) 1064.

Team: Railways (Joydeep Banerjee, Vishvajit Shinde, Shyamal Das) 3217, West Bengal (Sanjib Bej, Dipyaman Mukherjee, Suman Sengupta) 3085, Maharashtra (Nilesh Rane, Shailender Singh Thakur, Abhijit Bhattacharya) 3083.

Civilians: Praveen Rawat (Del) 1095, Sunil Kumar, (Army) 1089, Sudhir Paul (Army) 1086.

Team: Army (Sudhir Paul, Mohd Riaz, Sunil Kumar) 3230, Navy (Subhajit Debnath, Vijay Kumar, Manoj Kumar) 3063, Delhi (Amanveer Singh Wadalia, Praveen Rawat, Mayank Singh Langan) 3048.

Juniors: Shimon Sharif (Del) 1042.

Clay Piegeon Skeet Open: Harinder Singh Bedi (Del) 136.0, Rao Inderjit Singh (Hya) 135.0, Saravdeep Mann (Hya) 131.

Team: Haryana (Rao Inderjit Singh, Saravdeep Mann, Shivinder Bhel) 324, Delhi (PS Sodhi, Harinder Singh Bedi, Raj Pal Singh Kochhar) 299, Punjab (Harisimran S. Sandhu, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Raja KS Sidhu) 282.

Civilians: Varun Mohan Soni (Del) 103, Mehraj Khan (UP) 81, Pranav Singh (UP) 65.

Seniors (National Rule): Rana Inder Pratap Singh (Pun) 25, Alok Singh (Del) 22, Karan Dhillon (Del) 16.

Juniors: Azam Monem (WB) 36, N. Bakthavatchalam (TN) 35, Rana Inder Pratap Singh (Pun) 25.