Round Up of Beijing World Cup

Quantum jump for Sidhu, Kumar

26 April 2009. From a national champion in the women’s 10m air pistol to winning silver in the World Cup that too with a world-class score of 385, is certainly a quantum jump for Heena Sidhu.

A few days ago in the Changwon World Cup, the Patiala-based shooter was far from her personal best of 388. In Changwon, she shot 377. That performance by her standard wasn’t encouraging.

But in Beijing, the national champion looked more composed. Perhaps, it enabled her to regroup both mentally and physically, to pocket silver in the global event. Considering her scores (385), it’s indeed an excellent performance. It also augur well for the future.

The Chinese Capital, it seems, also proved a good hunting ground for Army marksman Vijay Kumar. The day after Sidhu lifted the sagging morale of the squad, Kumar came up good in the rapid-fire winning silver. It is an altogether different matter that the field wasn’t as strong as in Changwon.

His scores was 780.4 (581+199.4). The Army shooter missed gold by a whisker.

Narang disappoints

Much was expected of rifle shooter Gagan Narang. The hero of the Changwon World Cup qualified for the finals of the 50m prone event with a qualification score of 595 but his performance of 101.6 with a poor fourth final shot on 8.5 robbed him of adding one more medal to his kitty.

Expectations were also high from air pistol shooters in the men’s group. But for reason best know to them, they too failed to repeat the Changwon performance in Beijing. What went wrong in a few days? If a top federation official is to be believed, lack of focus, among other factors, could have been responsible for the low scores.

Change of environment from one place to another in a matter of days could also be the reason behind their none-too-impressive performance.

Off-target

Barring a few, almost the entire contingent came up with a below par performance. Take for example woman rifle shooter Lajja Goswami. She had shot 579 in three-position in South Korea, but in China, she finished down the ladder with a score of 545. Meena Kumari shot one point better than Lajja.

Air pistol shooters in the men’s event had an off day. India’s best bet in Korea, Om Parkash, shot 567, which was nearly 14 points less than his Korean performance. Had he repeated his scores, he could have been among the finalists, and in contention for a medal.

The performances of others in the fray too were on similar lines. But the heartening thing is Indian shooters have bagged four medals from back to back World Cups. indianshooting.com