Apurvi Chandela and Rahi Sarnobat were the toast of the Indian camp here on Saturday as the duo won gold in the women’s 10m air rifle and 25m pistol respectively.
1-2 finish The two were confidence personified as they struck gold in contrasting fashions. Also in tune with the performances of the duo were the feats of compatriots Ayonika Paul (rifle) and Anisa Sayyed (pistol) who clinched silver to help India finish 1-2 in both the events.
Apurvi went to the final topping the preliminaries with a Games record total of 415.6 points. She shot brilliantly right through the final, going into the lead with a score of 31.4 points and staying there through the next eight rounds.
The sparkling form that the Jaipur-born girl displayed can be best described only by the scores Apurvi returned through the 20-shot final. She had just three scores below 10, 9.5 in the 12th and 13th and 9.9 in the 19th. The rest were above 10, with the 10.8 in the first and 11th being her best.
Silver for Ayonika Ayonika had finished fourth in the preliminaries with a score of 413.2 points. The 22-year-old was placed second after three rounds but was pushed to fourth by Jasmine Se (Singapore) and the seasoned Nur Sayani Mohammed Taibi (Malaysia), the eventual bronze-medallist.
However, the Mumbai girl was in no mood to surrender and showed steely resolve as she clawed her way back to second with three rounds remaining. In the end, Ayonika had a score of 204.9 points as against Apurvi’s winning total of 206.7 points.
In the 25m pistol, Rahi and Anisa entered the semifinals after finishing fourth and seventh in the preliminaries with scores of 575 and 568 through the precision and duel rounds. The class of the two Indians was evident as they bounced back in the semifinals and emerged on top with a scoreline of 16 and 14 to set up an all-Indian final.
In the final, Rahi made the most of the mistakes committed by Anisa in the last three rounds of the five-round final series to win 8-2.
India also picked up a silver medal through Prakash Nanjappa in the men’s 10m air pistol. Australia’s Daniel Repacholi took the gold.
Nanjappa, the 38-year-old from Bangalore, was in a position to bag the gold in the men’s 10m air pistol.
But his disappointing 7.7 in the 12th round of the final undid the good work as he dropped to fourth straightaway from the top. Though Nanjappa staged a tremendous comeback, he was unable to stop Daniel Repacholi, as the Australian kept his calm through the final four shots.
Nanjappa tallied 198.2 points, just a mere 1.3 points behind Repacholi who finished with a new Games record.
