The Hindu : Sport : Samaresh ends on a disappointing note

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 26, 2006

Sport

Sport

Samaresh ends on a disappointing note

Weapon trouble dashes the hopes of the Indian

Melbourne: Samaresh Jung's hopes for a sixth gold medal went up in smoke as his pistol deserted him at crucial moments and the Indian finished ninth in the 25th standard pistol event here on Saturday.

The pistol, which fetched Samaresh five gold, a silver and a bronze, got jammed in the third and sixth series leaving him bewildered at the turn of events.

Samaresh totalled 551 for the ninth slot. The gold was won by Mick Gault of England in the shoot-off. Gault and Pakistan's Irshad Ali were tied at 568 but in the shoot-off the Englishman had the last laugh as he shot 44 while Ali shot 41. Australian Bruce Quick was third with 562. Another Indian in the fray, Ronak Pandit, shot 557 to take the sixth place.

Rare slip

This was the only event in the men's section of the competition in which India did not win any medal.

The Indians ended the competition with 27 medals — 16 gold, seven silver and four bronze.

Indian shooters won two more gold and a bronze to improve upon their 2002 Games tally. In Manchester, they had won 24 medals — 14 gold, seven silver and three bronze. Samaresh entered the last day's event with the expectations of equalling the record of Australian swimmers Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill of winning six golds.

At the receiving end

But that was not too be, if it was luck that deserted him on Friday in the 25 metre centrefire, on Saturday his weapon deserted him when he needed it the most.

He shot 178 in this round to total 551 (194, 179, 178).

``You can't win every time,'' Samaresh said adding, ``this is all part of the game and these things do happen. But I have one regret that I could have finished these Games on a better note.''

Asked to react on missing out on the record equalling sixth gold medal in the Games, Samaresh said, ``I was never bothered about the record. I came here to perform and I gave my best.''

In skeet, India could not get any medal as Amit Sanghi finished 14th with a total of 113.

The other Indian in the fray, Baba Prithiviraj Singh Bedi, was placed 17th with an aggregate of 112.

Cyprus's George Achilleos won the gold with a new Games record of 148. — UNI

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