Samresh faces tough challenge in individual events

Indian ace shooter Samresh Jung8217;s heroics at Melbourne has propelled India to the third position in overall medals tally at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.

Indian ace shooter Samresh Jung8217;s heroics at Melbourne has propelled India to the third position in overall medals tally at the ongoing Commonwealth Games. Samresh became the first double gold medallist of the Games on Saturday.

He first combined with Vivek Singh to win the gold medal in men8217;s 10m air pistol pairs event. Later he teamed up with Ronak Pandit in the 25m standard pistol pairs to add another gold to his kitty, taking his personal tally to three that includes a silver that he won with Vikas Singh in 50m free pair event on Friday.

Well the going from here on is only going to be tough for India8217;s national pistol champion. Going by the overall standard in pistol events in Melbourne, it will be quite challenging for Samresh to meet his target of winning four individual titles. To achieve that goal, Samresh needs to be more consistent and focused when the individual events get underway from March 21.

In both air and free pistol events, apart from hosts Australia, Samresh will also encounter stiff challenge from Singapore and England shooters.

While in other two events8212;centre and standard, he faces strong opposition from teammates including Ronak Pandit and ace Indian pistol shooter Jaspal Rana.

On Monday, Samresh is pairing with Rana for the centre fire event. The duo are expected to win another gold for the country.

Coming to individual events, going by the performance of participants, there are at least four to five shooters in each of the four events who are either close to Samresh or have done better than him.

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Therefore, any error, even if its a fraction of decimal, on the part of Samresh might prove costly.

Silver medallists in air pistol team, England8217;s Mick Gault score of 583 was five points better than Samresh. Mick, in fact, could be the biggest threat to Indian shooter.

Incidentally, Mick is also participating in at least three individual events.

So far, going by the performance of shooters from others participating countries, fight for gold will be close.