Abhinav Bindra to lead Indian challenge

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 13. Air rifle ace Abhinav Bindra will lead the Indian challenge in the fourth Commonwealth shooting championship to be held in Bisley, England, from August 21 to 31. Sydney Olympic finalist Anjali Vedpathak and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jaspal Rana are the other leading members in the team.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), has selected 29 shooters in all to represent the country in the meet.

The Indian shooters, with an exception of skeet marksmen, have shown consistent performance in the recent World Cups in Milan, Munich and Lonato, apart from the Asian clay shooting championship in Bangkok, and the Meeting of Shooting Hopes international junior championship in Plzen, Czech Republic.

The selection was based on the performance of the shooters in these competitions and the National championships. Also, the scores achieved in the trials conducted in Phillaur and Delhi before these international events, were taken into consideration.

At the Bisley championship, the Indian shooters will fight for medals in 16 disciplines in rifle, pistol and shotgun events.

Bindra won the bronze medal in the Munich World Cup with a score of 700.5. The 18-year-old had shot 597 out of 600 going into the final, bettering the junior World record by one point. Bindra will have a tough task at hand during the championship as he would also be concentrating on putting up a good show in the World Cup Finals, in Munich, Germany. The dates of the two events clash, but Bindra will take a shot at both.

In the shotgun events, double trap shooter Major R. V. S. Rathore has been consistent. Rathore finished 11th with a score of 134 out of 150 in Lonato, and in Bangkok, he made it to the final but missed the bronze by one point. Rathore shot 165 out of 200 to finish fourth.

Olympian Anwar Sultan also came good in Bangkok winning a bronze medal. Seasoned Mansher Singh had settled for the fifth position.

The NRAI Selection Committee meeting on Friday, chaired by its Secretary General, Mr. Baljit Singh Sethi, decided to hold back the men's skeet team. There will be a trial to decide the case of the team.

``Skeet scores are very low. We want to send the best team, preferably younger boys should be given preference,'' said Mr. Sethi. ``Our future is with them. Most of the seniors are aged and they have not performed anything great in last 20 years,'' Mr. Sethi said without mentioning any names.

The skeet trials will be held at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on July 28 and 29. The selection committee will again meet on July 30, and clear the skeet shooters, if they improve their scores considerably.

Men skeet shooters looked pedestrian, both in Lonato and Bangkok. Young Amardeep Rai shot 106 out of 125 and was tied for 80th position. Harinder Singh Bedi (103) and National champion Harsimranjit Singh Sandhu (103) were joint 91st.

In the Asian Clay shooting championship, Paramjit Singh Sodhi shot 104 out of 125 and Naveen Jindal (100) finished 28th and 30th respectively.

However, National skeet champion Aarti Singh, has made it to the Indian team following her brilliant performance in the World Cup in Lonato. Aarti finished fourth in a strong field, and pipped the Olympic champion in the tie-shoot.

Of the 29 selected, the 23 pistol and rifle shooters have been cleared, and the case of six of the trap shooters is pending approval from the Government.

The camp for rifle and pistol shooters will be held in Bangalore from July 28 to August 10. The shotgun shooters will attend the camp in Delhi itself.

Owing to the strict guidelines issued by the organisers of the Commonwealth championship, the pistol shooters will have to submit their weapons by August 17. To meet that deadline, pistol shooters will reach Delhi on August 12 and their weapons will be despatched the next day to reach England in time.

lThe team: Men: Air rifle: Abhinav Bindra, Charan Singh, Sameer Ambekar; Free rifle Prone: A. P. Subbaiah, Satguru Dass, T. C. Palangappa; Free rifle 3- position: A. P. Subbiah, T. C. Palangappa, Charan Singh; Free pistol: Samresh Jung, Ved Prakash, Vivek Singh; Centre fire pistol: Jaspal Rana, Naresh Kumar, Ved Prakash; Standard pistol: Jaspal Rana, Naresh Kumar, Vivek Singh; Rapid fire pistol: Poonam Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Ronak Pandit; Air pistol: Jaspal Rana, Ved Prakash, Samresh Jung Trap: Mansher Singh, Manavjit Singh, Anwar Sultan; Double trap: R. V. S. Rathore, Gaurav Sondhi.

Women: Air rifle: Anjali Vedpathak, Anuja Tere, Meena Kumari; Sport rifle prone: Raj Kumari, Kuheli Gangulee, Anuja Tere; Sport rifle 3- position: Anjali Vedpathak, Kuheli Gangulee, Anuja Tere; Air pistol: Sonia Rana, Shilpi Singh, Shweta Chaudhary; Sport pistol: Sushma Rana, Saroja Kumari, Shweta Chaudhary; Skeet: Aarti Singh.

Coaches: Prof. Sunny Thomas, Tibor Gonczol, A. K. Balashanmugham, Deep Bhatia and Mohinder Lal; Armourer: D. K. Shukla; ISSF rifle jury chairman: Col. Jaswant Singh; ISSF pistol jury: A. J. Jalaluddin.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Leave Hakkinen in peace: Schumacher
Next     : An apology called Medak STC