Glasgow, July 26 : The guns were booming loud for India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as Apurvi Chandila clinched the gold medal while compatriots Ayonika Paul and Prakash Nanjappa bagged silver medals at the Barry Buddon Shooting Range here Saturday.
India are now fifth in the medals standings with 13 - four gold, six silver and three bronze, behind England, Australia, Scotland and Canada.
It was an interesting battle in the women's 10m air rifle event as Apurvi beat World No.8 Ayonika in an exciting battle to clinch the gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle finals For Apurvi, the gold was her maiden international medal while Ayonika clinched her second international medal, having won the World Cup bronze last month in Slovenia.
World No.17 Apurvi, who topped the qualifications with 415.6 points (a Commonwealth Games record), led in the finals right from the start and shot 206.7 points to give India second gold medal from shooting.
The 21-year-old Ayonika was fourth in the qualification round with a score of 413.2 points and clinched the silver with a score of 204.9 in the final round.
Both Apurvi, 21, and Ayonika were engaged in an interesting duel for the gold medal after Malaysia's Nur Sayani Mohamed Tayabi settled for the bronze medal with a final score of 184.4.
Going into the final shot, Apurvi was always in lead and she held her nerve against the higher ranked Ayonika to clinch the gold, which was also India's second from shooting.
Sinaporean Jasmine Ser, who was the defending champion, finished fourth with a final score of 163.2. He compatriot and World No.5 Martina Lindsay Veloso, who was the highest ranked shooter in the competition, finished fifth with a final score of 143.4.
The two medals for India came shortly after Prakash Nanjappa won the silver in the men's 10m air pistol event. For Nanjappa it was a great comeback story after having been detected with Bell's palsy, a form of facial paralysis, last year.
Nanjappa brought home India's third medal in shooting when he clinched the men's 10-metre air pistol silver. Abhinav Bindra (men's 10-metre air rifle gold) and Malaika Goel (women's 10-metre air pistol silver) won two medals Friday.
Australia's Daniel Repacholi won the gold with 199.5 points from Nanjappa, at 198.2, while England's Michael Gault took the bronze with 176.5.
The 38-year-old Nanjappa was leading till the fourth round with a combined score of 100.9 but a poor fifth round - 17.7 - saw Repacholi go ahead of the Banglorean. Though he had a better sixth round than Repacholi, the Melbourne-born maintained his lead to clinch the gold.
Nanjappa, who gave up the sport between 2003-09 until his father encouraged him to take it up again, had earlier advanced to the final after topping qualification while compatriot Om Prakash narrowly missed out, finishing ninth.
With 580 points, Nanjappa was placed first, two points ahead of Englishman Stewart Nangle, who eventually finished fifth in the final. Om Prakash bowed out missing the cut by just one point, garnering 568 points.
More medals are expected from the shooting ranges as Anisa Sayyed and Rahi Sarnobat qualified for the women's 25-metre pistol semi-finals after finishing second and third respectively in their qualification rounds. Anisa entered the semi-finals through precision while Rahi qualified through rapid.
With 286 points, Anisa finished second behind Singapore's Shun Xie Teo (293) while Rahi finished third with a combined score of 293, behind Malaysia's Alia Azahari (295) and Australia's Lalita Yauhleuskaya (294).
The semi-finals will be held later in the day which will be followed by the bronze medal play-off and the final for the gold and silver.
But there was some disappointment from the shotgun events as Mairaj Ahmad Khan was knocked out of the men's skeet qualification. The 38-year-old finished sixth with a total score of 117 behind Cypriot Andreas Chasikos, who topped the standings with 120. Mairaj finished with 47 points, two behind Chasikos.
There was also good news from the boxing ring as Manoj Kumar entered the Round of 16 of the men's 64kg category. He defeated Mokhachane Moshoeshoe of Lesotho 3-0.
In squash, Mahesh Mangaonkar entered the men's classic plate quarter-finals defeating Welsh Peter Creed 3-0 at the Scotstoun Sports Campus. The Indian won 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 in the Round of 16 and will play the winner of the match between Sunil Seth of Guyana and Nick Taylor of Jersey next Sunday.
The Indian women's table tennis team beat New Zealand 3-0 to proceed to the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games here Saturday.
Judokas Sahil Pathania (-100kg) and Parikshit Kumar (+100kg) also advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's judo event but compatriot Avtar Singh lost in the men's -90kg Round of 16.
India's Deborah, Mahitha Mohan and Kezia Vargheese were knocked out of the women's sprint qualifiers in the cycling track event at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
India were knocked out of the women's fours lawn bowls of the 2014 Commonwealth Games after the team finished fourth in section B losing their last group match to Northern Ireland at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls centre.
