Heena, Annu trigger happy - Gagan Narang’s hope of fifth win shattered

Rifleman Gagan Narang’s hopes of bagging six gold medals in the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games remained unfulfilled, when he failed to win the 50metre pairs event on Wednesday.

Though the day began on a bright note for the hosts, at the Karni Singh range, with Heena Sidhu, Annu Raj Singh winning the record 31st gold medal for India in the 10m air pistol pairs event, the defeat of Narang and Samresh Jung in their respective pairs events dampened the spirit.

In the women’s 50metre prone event, Scotland’s Jen McIntosh won the gold with a Games record of 597. Tejaswini Sawant, the world champion in this event, got the silver with a score of 594 and Welsh’s Johanne Brekke settled for the bronze with 593 points.

“My personal best is 597 and I was competing against it and still fell short by three points. So, I am disappointed. If I had a bit more patience, I think I could have easily won the gold,” said Tejaswini.

“I was warned about the strong winds. After the third series, I became a bit over-conscious. Normally, I don’t attach much importance to the wind. But today (Tuesday), I don’t know why I was thinking so much about it ...my coaches also told me not to bother much about it,” she said.

In the men’s 25metre standard pistol, Jung (561) and C.K.Chaudhary (542) won the silver with a score of 1103.

However, with four more finals to be decided on the last day of the competition on Wednesday, India, with 14 gold medals in shooting, have an outside chance of taking their tally of yellow metals to beyond 16, a figure that they achieved in the Manchester Games, four years ago.

Tuesday’s results also ended Narang’s chance of overcoming “goldfinger” Samresh Jung’s mark of five gold medals in Melbourne. Narang, who has four gold, can still match the pistol hero if he manages to win the 50m prone individual event.

In the women’s 10metre air pistol, India, Australia and Canada were tied for the gold with 759 points. Canada got the bronze on the basis of lesser number of perfect 10s. They shot 14, while India and Australia had 21 each. India bagged the gold on the basis of count-back.

Heena (384) and Annu (375) clinched the 14th gold medal from the shooting range. The silver went to Australian shooters Dina Aspandiyarova (384) and Pamela McKenzie (375) and Canadian duo Dorothy Ludwig (380) and Lynda Hare (379) settled for the bronze.