JITU SHOOTS GOLD
Shooter Rai bags gold; India’s medal tally surge to 19
GOLD COAST: Jitu Rai underlined his status as one of India's premier shooters by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal before Mehuli Ghosh settled for the women's 10m air rifle silver by forcing a shoot-off with a perfect final shot of 10.9 in the Commonwealth Games on Monday.
The World Championship silver medallist Rai shattered the Games record in the finals with a score of shot 235.1 to comfortably finish on top with compatriot Om Prakash Mitharval giving him company on the podium with a bronze medal.
Defending champion Apurvi Chandela added a bronze to India's tally after finishing third in the women's air rifle finals with 225.3.
The air rifle finals witnessed an exciting a climax as Ghosh, at 17 years of age, ensured a shoot-off with Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso, the eventual gold medallist and one who displayed imperious form all along, and so was Ghosh.
Both Veloso and Ghosh shot a Games record 247.2 before the Singaporean had the last laugh with a 10.3 in the shoot-off as her Indian rival managed 9.9 at the Belmont Shooting Centre.
Ghosh thought she had won the gold when she fired the only perfect
shot of the final with the last shot in the gold-medal round, only to be told she had equalled Veloso to force a shoot-off.
The Indian shooter had already disarmed her rifle and waved jubilantly to the crowd.
Chandela had earlier smashed her own Commonwealth Games qualifying record from four years back by scoring 423.2, while Mitharval too had established a new qualification record with 584.
He eventually finished with the bronze after aggregating 214.3 in the eight-man finals.
Australia's Kerry Bell secured the silver medal with 233.5, having managed to topple Mitharval from the second position.
In the men's skeet finals, Smit Singh finished a disappointing sixth after managing to shoot 15 out of the first 20 shots.
In the air pistol finals, Jitu started on a strong note and led with 100.4 at the end of stage 1, while Mitharval was third with 98.1.
In stage 2 elimination, Rai started with 10.3 and 10.3 to lead the pecking order, even as his compatriot moved up and displaced Bell at second place with two 10.1.
Rai continued to surge ahead with a 10.2.