Rana, Das bag golden double in shooting

Sushma Rana and Satguru Das came up with sterling performances to bag the individual and team gold in the women's 25m Sport Pistol and men's 50m Rifle Prone respectively as India once again swept all the four gold medals in shooting in the ninth SAF Games in Islamabad on Saturday.

India have won a whopping 14 gold, three silver and four bronze medals so far with three more events still to be held in the Games.

Sushma was in her elements and showed her prowess in great measure scoring 96, 96 and 97. In the precision series, she began with a modest 93 but then lost concentration to hit only 90 points in the next round. She, however, soon recovered to shot 99 to finish with 571, way ahead of second placed K G N Perara of Sri Lanka (557).

The Indian thus set a new meet record erasing Kunti Malik's 558 set in Chennai in 1995.

However, India's Saroja Kumari missed the bronze medal by a whisker to Sri Lanka's Shyamalie Wijesooriya (645.2) finishing on 645.1 points.

Sushma along with Saroja Kumari (549) and Shweta Choudhury (549) also garnered the team gold for India.

In the 50m Rifle Prone event, Das was the only shooter to score a perfect 100 (in his fifth round) and was consistent all through. He ended with a tally of 588 in the preliminary round and shot 101.5 in the final to claim the individual gold with a total of 689.5 points.

Pakistan's Hasan Waseem claimed the silver with 687.5 points and Taufiq Muhammad Ayaz (Bangladesh, 682.4) the bronze.

Results:

Women 25m Sports Pistol (Individual): 1. Sushma Rana (571, 102) 673, NMR (old: Kunti Malik, India, 558 Chennai 1995, Soma Kumarasinghe Sri Lanka, 653.8, Chennai 1995); 2. K G N Perara (SL 557, 90.5) 647.5, 3. Shyamalie Wijesooriya (SL 545, 100.2) 645.2;     

(Team:) India (Sushma Rana 571, Saroja Kumari 549, Shweta Choudhury 549) 1669 NMR (Old India 1652 at Chennai, 1995); 2. Sri Lanka (K G N Perara 557, Shyamalie 545, Ruwini Abemanna 542) 1644 and 3. Pakistan (Farhat Nasreen 556, Shagufta Zulfiquar 541, Azra Nazir 532) 1629.

Men 50 Rifle Prone (Individual): 1. Satguru Das (India, 588, 101.5) 689.5, 2. Hasan Waseem (Pakistan, 585, 102.5) 687.5; 3. Taufick Muhammad Ayaz (Bangladesh, 582, 100.4) 682.4

(Team): 1. India (Satguru Das 588, T C Palangappa 577, Friduddin 577) 1742, 2. Pakistan (Waseem 582, Muhammad 579, Dawood Jan 566) 1730 and 3. Bangladesh (Taufick 582, Anwer Uza 578, Md Shoyer 562) 1722.