Commonwealth shooting: Mittal, Nanjappa shoot gold

Gold Coast (Australia), November 3

India took their gold medal count to five at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships with Prakash Nanjappa and double trap shooter Ankur Mittal clinching top honours in their respective events here today. Nanjappa led an Indian clean sweep at the men’s 50m pistol event with World Cup Final bronze medallist Amanpreet Singh winning the silver and Jitu Rai fetching his second bronze of the competition.

Mittal, who hails from Sonepat, added more glitter to his best-ever international year with the double trap gold, while Shreyasi Singh bagged a silver in the women’s double trap event to round off yet another successful day for India at the competition. India have so far won 15 medals at the ongoing championships.

Nanjappa leads sweep in 50m pistol

Making a strong comeback in the eight-man final round, Nanjappa won the coveted gold medal with a score of 222.4. Rai had topped the qualification round with 559 points, while Amanpreet had qualified third with 543 and Nanjappa fourth with 542. 

In the final round, Rai made a strong start. Nanjappa was in fifth place after the first five-shot series. After the second series, however, the Indian trio pulled away from the rest of the field. The lead fluctuated for much of the time between Rai and Amanpreet, but Nanjappa caught up with them at the 18th shot of the 24-shot final, and eventually beat Rai by 0.2 points at the end of the 20th and Amanpreet by 0.4 to emerge triumphant.

Mittal traps gold 

In the men’s double trap, too, three Indian shooters qualified for the final round. Mohammed Asab was the best Indian qualifier, shooting 140 out of 150 to be placed third in the qualifying round. 

Mittal shot 138 to qualify in fifth place while Sangram Dahiya grabbed the sixth and final berth with 135 points. 

In the final, Mittal bagged the top spot by beating England’s Matthew French. 

In the women’s double trap event, Shreyasi qualified in second place with a score of 96 out of 120, while Seema Tomar shot 84 to qualify in fifth place. Shreyasi finished with a silver. — PTI