Man with golden arm
Inderjeet Singh bags his fifth gold medal of the year by winning India’s first gold in Universiade.
Star athlete Inderjeet Singh yesterday won the shot put event to open India’s gold medal account in the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.
Indian men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team also bagged a bronze today to swell India’s medal count to four (one gold, one silver, two bronze) on the fifth day of competitions.
The 27-year-old Inderjeet was at second spot after the fifth and penultimate throw as he had a 19.80m best throw till then before he came up with 20.27m in his final attempt to run away with the gold and better the colour of the medal from silver he won in the last edition in 2013 in Russia to yellow this time.
Andrei Marius Gag of Romania bagged the silver with a best throw of 19.92m while Alexander Bulanov of Russia took the bronze with 19.84m.
The Haryana shot putter has had a phenomenal year with five gold medals in all five international events he has participated thus far in 2015. He had won Asian Championships in China with 20.41m before bagging a gold in each of the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand last month. He won a bronze in the Asian Games last year with 19.63m.
“I would like to thank the Almighty, my family and my coach Mr Pritam Singh for their support. I am looking forward to the World Athletics Championship in China next month, where I hope to better my personal best,” said Inderjeet, who is being supported by Anglian Medal Hunt Company, after winning the gold.
In men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team event, the Indian trio of Achal Pratap Singh Grewal, Amrender Pal Singh Chauhan and Akshay Jain won the bronze behind the Russian and Korean shooters who won gold and silver, respectively.
AAI orders probe
Meanwhile, Archery Assocation of India has ordered a probe after Indian men’s compound archery team failed to turn up for a bronze medal play-off match.
According to the communication manager of the World Archery Chris Wells, the men’s compound team comprising Gurwinder Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh and Aman was not present at the start of the match against Italy at 10am local time in Gwangju, South Korea.
As per the World Archery rules if a team is not present at the start of a match then that game is forfeited.
Expressing shock at the incident, AAI secretary general Anil Kamineni said they are writing to the team as well the organisers to get into the root of the matter.
“This does not concern AAI as the team is sent by the Association of Indian Universities. But many India archers were part of the team so we’re probing the matter,” Kamineni told PTI.
He, however, rubbished reports that claimed the archers were busy sightseeing.
“At 10am in the morning they cannot go sightseeing. Moreover, most of them are senior archers and they know their responsibilities.”
Indian coach Jiwanjot Singh, however, has blamed it on equipment malfunction.
“Gurwinder’s bow string broke and none of the archers were carrying a spare bow. So we had to send a guy to the team hotel and get a bow from the girls. We reached the competition venue exactly two minutes after the reporting time but the officials did not give in to our request,” Jiwanjot was quoted saying in the media. PTI
Star athlete Inderjeet Singh yesterday won the shot put event to open India’s gold medal account in the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.
Indian men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team also bagged a bronze today to swell India’s medal count to four (one gold, one silver, two bronze) on the fifth day of competitions.
It was not an easy outing for the Asian champion Inderjeet as he won the event with his final throw of 20.27m at the Gwangju Universiade Main Stadium.
The 27-year-old Inderjeet was at second spot after the fifth and penultimate throw as he had a 19.80m best throw till then before he came up with 20.27m in his final attempt to run away with the gold and better the colour of the medal from silver he won in the last edition in 2013 in Russia to yellow this time.
Andrei Marius Gag of Romania bagged the silver with a best throw of 19.92m while Alexander Bulanov of Russia took the bronze with 19.84m.
The Haryana shot putter has had a phenomenal year with five gold medals in all five international events he has participated thus far in 2015. He had won Asian Championships in China with 20.41m before bagging a gold in each of the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand last month. He won a bronze in the Asian Games last year with 19.63m.
“I would like to thank the Almighty, my family and my coach Mr Pritam Singh for their support. I am looking forward to the World Athletics Championship in China next month, where I hope to better my personal best,” said Inderjeet, who is being supported by Anglian Medal Hunt Company, after winning the gold.
In men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team event, the Indian trio of Achal Pratap Singh Grewal, Amrender Pal Singh Chauhan and Akshay Jain won the bronze behind the Russian and Korean shooters who won gold and silver, respectively.
AAI orders probe
Meanwhile, Archery Assocation of India has ordered a probe after Indian men’s compound archery team failed to turn up for a bronze medal play-off match.
According to the communication manager of the World Archery Chris Wells, the men’s compound team comprising Gurwinder Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh and Aman was not present at the start of the match against Italy at 10am local time in Gwangju, South Korea.
As per the World Archery rules if a team is not present at the start of a match then that game is forfeited.
Expressing shock at the incident, AAI secretary general Anil Kamineni said they are writing to the team as well the organisers to get into the root of the matter.
“This does not concern AAI as the team is sent by the Association of Indian Universities. But many India archers were part of the team so we’re probing the matter,” Kamineni told PTI.
He, however, rubbished reports that claimed the archers were busy sightseeing.
“At 10am in the morning they cannot go sightseeing. Moreover, most of them are senior archers and they know their responsibilities.”
Indian coach Jiwanjot Singh, however, has blamed it on equipment malfunction.
“Gurwinder’s bow string broke and none of the archers were carrying a spare bow. So we had to send a guy to the team hotel and get a bow from the girls. We reached the competition venue exactly two minutes after the reporting time but the officials did not give in to our request,” Jiwanjot was quoted saying in the media. PTI
