Indian shooters continue
to disappoint

Continuing their dismal run, Indian shooters failed to bag any medal for the third successive day, in the 14th Asian Games Changwon Internatonal shooting range in Busan on Sunday.

The Indian team of Anjali Bhagwat, Deepali Deshpande and Kuheli Gangulee finished a poor seventh in the women's 50 metres rifle three position team event with a total of 1701 points much to the disappointment of their team mates.

The strong Chinese team continued to rule the roost, picking up most of the gold medals on offer.

Anjali, who was tipped as one of the medal contenders before leaving the country, seemed off-colour and returned with a rather poor score of 569, while Deepali managed a score of 574, the best among the three.

Kuheli, who has also been struggling to find her form, managed a score of 558.

The gold medal in the event was expectedly claimed by the Chinese trio of Li Du, Xian Wang and Hong Shan, who had an aggregate of 1754, which not only established a new Asian Games record but also equalled the world record.

The trio tied the four-year old world record, which was also set by China.

Hosts South Korea clinched the bronze medal. The team, comprising Sun Min Lee, Hyun Ah Kong and Jung Mi Kim, scored 1742 points, while the Kazakhstan team of Olga Dovgun, Galina Korchma and Varvara Kovalenko took the bronze with 1729 points.

In the individual events, the Indian shooters also fared badly with none of them finishing in the top eight.

In the men's 25m rapid fire pistol team event, the Chinese team, comprising Guohui Liu, Yongqiang Chen and Haping Ji, clinched the coveted gold medal with a record-breaking total of 1757 points.

In the individual event, Guohui Liu claimed the gold medal with a total of 690.8 points to establish a new Asian Games record.

The Indians have won just two silvers medals from the shooting range so far. While the women's team of Anjali Bhagwat, Suma shirur and Deepali Deshpande had claimed the silver in the 10 metres air rifle team event, Manavjit Singh, Mansher Singh and Anwer Sultan won the silver in the men's trap event.