Incheon, Sep 26 (PTI) Indian men ended their campaign in the pistol events on a winning note by shooting down a silver medal in the 25m centre fire event even as the women’s team exited from the 50m three-position competition without success at the Asian Games, here today.
The men pistol shooters ? spearheaded by London Olympic Games silver medallist Vijay Kumar ? clinched the second place with a total score of 1740, two behind gold medallists China.
Had the Mhow-based army men’s trio, made up of Kumar, Pemba Tamang and Gurpreet Singh, equalled the Chinese, they would have secured a gold as their number of inner tens was much higher than their formidable rivals.
Vijay took part here despite being troubled by cervical spondylitis for which he is set to undergo surgery soon after returning home.
It was the eighth medal that the shooters have won from the Games, made up of one gold, one silver and six bronze medals, all but two of them coming in team events.
Barring Jitu Rai, only Abhinav Bindra has managed to win an individual medal in Incheon, an indication of how competitive the shooting competition has been.
Tamang was better in the Precision round scoring a brilliant 99, but was slightly off the mark in the subsequent Rapid fire when he shot 97 to earn the 8th spot with a tally of 581. He was followed by Gurpreet (580, 9th) and Kumar (579, 12th).
Tamang, hailing Arunachal Pradesh, said he made an extra effort and tried very hard to fetch India the medal.
“I am very happy with the team silver after we as a team missed the bronze by a whisker (by virtue of shooting lesser inner tens) in the 25m standard pistol,” said the father of two young children.
“I have started to love shooting after I joined the Army Marksmanship Unit in Mhow and I want to make both my children take up this sport,” he said.
Gurpreet, whose two rounds fetched him scores of 95 and 97, said it was the last match and he was happy to be returning home with at least one medal from the Games.
The Indian women team, comprising Lajja Gauswami, 44-year-old Anjali Bhagwat and Tejaswini Muley finished sixth in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Finals.
Lajja also flattered to deceive in the individual 50m Rifle 3 Positions as she finished a lowly seventh in the final while Anjali (572) and Tejaswini (568) got eliminated after finishing a distant 25th and 29th respectively.