Disappointment for Mairaj,Gagan; Shweta wins gold

MAIRAJ Ahmad Khan missed out on his first bite at an individual gold medal when he was pipped to the post in a shoot-off by Englands Michael Allen in the mens skeet event on Saturday.....

MAIRAJ Ahmad Khan missed out on his first bite at an individual gold medal when he was pipped to the post in a shoot-off by Englands Michael Allen in the mens skeet event on Saturday. Khan lead the qualification with his individual best mark of 120,a shot better than Allen,but only managed 23 targets in the final. With Allen shooting down 24 in the final,the match was tied. While Allen found the target in both sets of the shoot-off,Khan missed his final shot to settle for silver.

Disappointed that his wonderful run at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships had ended the way it did,the Khurja shooter said he got too excited,too early. I got overexcited thinking that I had all but sealed the medal. And in that excitement and the adrenaline rush,I missed. But I got my personal best score here,so I am not feeling all that terrible, he told The Indian Express.

Khan now heads to Acapulco for the March 1-10 ISSF World Cup,which is the first of many major events lined up in the calendar this year. Im flying off for the World Cup and I am feeling good about my shooting. Of course,I need to improve on few things,but I am hopeful of good results.

But this wasnt the sole action in the skeet final. There was also a four-way tie for the bronze medal,between Arozepal Singh,Kiwi Michael Wilson,P P Singh and Englands Craig Lakey. Aroze took the third spot as he shot all his targets in the shoot-off,with Wilson finishing fourth,ahead of PP Singh.

There was another tied match,this time in mens 50m prone event,and it ended in heartbreak for Gagan Narang. Australias Warren Potent took the first position,with Narang settling for silver and another Australian,Thomas Versace,finishing third. Narang had a points lead over the Australian,but his final shot of 9.7,combined with Potents 10.3,tied the match. In the shoot-off,the Australian shot 10.3,while Narang could only shoot 10. But there was much to cheer for the Indians as they swept all the medals in the mens 25m standard pistol event and also in the womens 10m air rifle match. Gurpreet upset Samaresh Jung to clinch the 25m gold with a score of 567 to take the top spot,two points clear of Jung.

The Indian womens team took all three positions on the podium in 10m air rifle. Shweta Chaudhary grabbed gold with a score of 479.9,while team mates Annuraj Singh and Pushpanjali Rana followed in that order.