India won the silver in the women's 10 m air pistol team shooting. The team of Harveen Srao, Sonia Rai and Shweta Choudhary scored a total of 1143.
DOHA: World Trap shooting champion Manavjit Sandhu of India lashed out at Asian Games officials after he failed to win two gold medals in windy conditions here on Sunday. Kuwait won both the team title and the individual final through Naser Meqlad as Sandhu struggled to cope with the uncomfortably strong winds at the Lusail ranges.
“Shooting in these conditions is ridiculous,” said Sandhu, who managed only two silvers in an event he was expected to finish on top. “The wind was so strong that the contact lens in my left eye was moving a lot. I have never had problems with my contact lens before. It distracted me a lot.” Asked what his strategy was before the individual final, Sandhu retorted: “What strategy? How can I have a strategy in these windy conditions.” China won four of the seven gold medals on offer on the second day after sweeping all six on Saturday.
Kuwait took two and Kazakhstan one of the remaining three titles. Chinese shooters won both the team and individual golds in the men’s and women’s 10m Air Pistol events. Tan Zongliang retained the 10m Air Pistol title he won at the Busan Asiad four years ago while compatriot Tao Luna won the women’s competition in the same event. Kazakhstan’s trio of Sergey Belyayev, Juriy Melsitov and Vitaly Dovgun won the men’s 50m Rifle Prone team title ahead of second-placed South Korea and China. Sandhu’s 113 and team-mate Anwer Sultan’s 110 gave India the advantage in the team event but an out-of-form Mansher Singh ruined the gold medal chance with 99 that put the team’s total at 322. Kuwait finished five points ahead on 327 with Meqlad shooting 114, Khaled Almudhaf 108 and Abdulrehman Al Faihan 105. Meqlad agreed the conditions were unsuitable for shooting but added they were the same for all teams. The reigning West Asian Games champion showed how the winds could be tackled by finishing three points clear of Sandhu in the individual final.
“I really need to say thank you to all my Kuwaiti people, my coach and my family,” said Meqlad. “The winds affected me like everyone else but we were all performing in the same conditions. “I was actually very tense because Sandhu kept up the pressure. He shot very well.” China, who did not participate in the Trap team event, won the men’s 10m Air Pistol team title ahead of South Korea and Vietnam. The Chinese team of Tan, world number two Pang Wei and Lin Zhongzaig fired a combined tally of 1,744 points, five more than the second-placed Koreans.
India, with Commonwealth Games hero Samaresh Jung in their ranks, finished a poor seventh with 1,712 points. Jung, who was voted the athlete of the Commonwealth Games in March with five gold medals, did not even qualify for the individual final by failing to finish among the top eight.
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