Pune: Pop group Bee Gees’s famous soundtrack from the movie Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, set the mood at the Balewadi Sports Complex shooting range as eight prominent shooters lay flat on the floor for the 50m rifle prone final at the 60th National shooting championship.
Music is a pleasant accompaniment for spectators right from the time the shooters line up for introduction and till the last shot is fired and the melodic line from the John Travolta-starring movie stirred up action.
Amongst the finalists was the Indian Army’s Sushil Ghaley, who created a national record with a qualification score of 628.7 in last year’s Nationals but who finished seventh overall, and Indian Railways’ Swapnil Kusale, who had clinched the title last year.
After the contestants had strung together three shots in opening two series under 100 seconds, the Army’s Chain Singh led with Rahul Poonia and Navdeep Singh Rathore following him.
But as the final entered the elimination round of 14 single shots, Ghaley — who won the same event at the Nationals here in 2011 — took the lead at the end of the 12th shot and held on to it, although Indian Navy’s Poonia challenged him till the very end. Ghaley won with a score of 207.5 after the 20-shot final.
Gagan Narang remained in contention following a shoot-off with Rathore, but the champion air rifle shooter was eliminated after Ishan Goel and Rathore.
Thereafter Kusale and Satyendra Singh made their exit leaving Ghaley, Poonia and Chain Singh in the fray. Consistently shooting the five-targets — for 10.5 plus scores — was Ghaley’s hallmark and eventually the seasoned campaigner in the prone event — that Abhinav Bindra and the ISSF’s Athletes Commission want to throw out from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — won the scrap with Poonia.
Heena Sidhu won the women’s 25m pistol event that had excellent shooters in Haryana’s Muskan, Rahi Sarnobat, Annu Raj Singh. The 25m is not Heena’s favourite event which is the 10m air pistol. “I have entered this event in four nationals, qualified for the title round twice and this is my first 25m pistol win.”
Placed fourth in qualification, Muskan hit the target consistently and led with a score of 15 (hits on target) at the end of the fifth series of five shots each.
A shoot-off thereafter among Heena, Rahi and Annu Raj — all tied at 14 — resulted in a bronze-medal round between Rahi and Annu Raj. The local girl, Rahi, won the third position hands down 8-0 as an outcome of winning four series of five shots each.
Heena, meanwhile, clinched gold medal round 8-2, winning three rounds of five shots each and sharing points in two rounds. Two points are awarded for winning a series in the medal round.
Pushpanjali Rana, Surabhi Pathak, Chinki Yadav and Baljinder Kaur were eliminated after the fifth series.
Muskan appeared quite disappointed with the outcome. “This happens. It’s difficult to sustain the aggression right through. It happened to me also; I lost my rhythm,” said Heena.
The results (finals): Men: 50m prone: Sushil Ghaley (Army) 207.5 (620.8), 2. Rahul Poonia (Navy) 206.9 (620.0), 3. Chain Singh (Army) 184.5 (625.1), 4. Satyendra Singh (Army) 162.8 (619.5), 5. Swapnil Kusale (Rlys) 142.2 (621.3), 6. Gagan Narang (A-I) 122.1 (620.3), 7. Navdeep Singh Rathore (MP) 101.8 (618.4), 8. Ishan Goel (UP) 80.1 (618.7).
Women: 25m pistol: 1. Heena Sidhu (ONGC) 14-8 (574) 2. Muskan (Har) (574) 15-2, Rahi Sarnobat (Mah) 14-8 (574), 4. Annu Raj Singh (A-I) 14-0 (573), 5. Pushpanjali Rana (CRPF) 12 (573), 6. Surabhi Pathak (MP) 11 (579), 7. Chinki Yadav (MP) 11 (570), 8. Baljinder Kaur (BSF) 9 (570).
10m air rifle: 1. Meghana Sajjanar (Kar) 208.2 (416.2), 2. Mehuli Ghosh (WB) 206.7 (415.6), 3. Kiranjit Kaur (Pun) 185.3 (414.0), 4. Pooja Ghatkar (Mah) 165.2 (415.5), 5.Dilreen Gill (Pun) 413.9, 6. Suma Shirur (Rlys) 121.0 (414.1), 7. Vinita Bhardwaj (Har) 101.0 (414.5), 8. Simrat Chahal (Raj) 80.2 (415.).
