Jung bows out of 10 mt air pistol; Mansher, Manavjit hang on

Beijing, Aug 09: Continuing the disappointing show by Indian shooters, Commonwealth Games hero Samaresh Jung finished 42nd out of 48 competitors in the Men's 10m Air Pistol qualification on the opening day of competition at the Beijing Olympic Games on Saturday. Jung, who had bagged five gold medals in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, shot only 570 out of 600 at the Beijing Olympic Shooting Range Hall। The topper, Pang Wei of China, logged 586 out of 600 to make the final easily. Jung came into the Games with a qualification score of 584, but Saturday he fell way short of that in his pet event, where he had finished fourth at the 2007 World Cup in Munich with 584 out of 600. Jung, however, is to compete in one more event, the 50m Pistol event. In men's trap, World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Mansher Singh had contrasting fortunes. In the third round of the first day, both seemed to be struggling to ensure their place in the six-man final. The next two qualifying rounds will be on Sunday. Manavjit made up some lost ground with a 24 in the final set, while Mansher squandered a great start with a 20 in the final set. Mansher had shot 25 and 24 in first two rounds, while Manavjit Singh had identical 23 in both first and second sets. Neither can afford to miss anything on the second day if they are to advance to the final. "It seemed to be a case of pressure," said coach Sunny Thomas, while veteran shooter and Secretary-General of Indian Olympic Association Randhir Singh called it "very disappointing, especially after such a great start by Mansher. At 70 and 69, they still have an outside chance of making the final, but cannot afford to miss anything more." Coach Thomas said: "They shot way below what they have been doing even in practice. I cannot explain how this happened. Maybe pressure, maybe nerves. But there is one more day to go." At 70 out of 75, Manavjit was one of the four shooters tied at 70 with nine shooters ahead of him. Mansher was among the eight tied at 69 with 13 shooters before him. David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic finished first after the first three rounds of men's qualification as he hit 73 targets with 24-24-25 as his scores. The Czech was followed by two Italian shooters, Athens runner-up Giovanni Pellielo with 73 targets and Erminio Frasca with a score of 72. The 42-year-old Mansher, one of the most experienced shooters in the squad, seemed to be rolling back the years and getting the better of his younger teammate in the first two sets after a perfect start. He then missed just one target in the second set. In the third he began with eight perfect shots but then missed three in the next four on the ninth, 11th and 12th birds. That seemed to unnerve him and he missed two more on the 19th and 21st. for a very disappointing 20 out of 25. Manavjit was more steady with 23-23-24. Alexey Alipov of Russia, Erik Varga of Slovakia, Michael Diamond of Australia and Croatia's Josip Glasnovic took the next four places with identical 72 hits on targets. There are 50 shots still left and the top six will qualify for the final, with any ties to be decided to be a tie-break shoot.

Anjali, Avneet shoot off target, fail to make final cut
Indian shooters Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet Kaur Sidhu failed to qualify for the final round in the Women's 10 metre air rifle event at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall on Saturday. The biggest hopes of getting a medal for India at this Olympics perhaps rested on the 9 member shooting team। The start though for the Indians has been anything but great। Bhagwat and Sidhu couldn't make it past the qualifying round of the 10m event. While Anjali finished 29th with a score of 393 (99, 99, 97, 98), Avneet Kaur Sidhu was further down 10 places shooting a poor 389 (98, 100, 96, 95). However all is not lost yet for Anjali as she is also participating in the 50m 3P event. Meanwhile, Emmons Katerina of Czech Republic shot a world record equalling 400 to top the qualification round. Lioubov Galnika of Russia and Snjezana Pejcic of Croartia were sceond and third with an identical score of 399. Meanwhile, India's bas start to the Olympics continued as woman judoka Khumujam Tombi Devi lost to Ana Hormigo of Portugal in the round of 32 in the 48kg category at the Olympics Games here on Saturday. First gold medal given out in Beijing Katerina Emmons spoiled China's bid for the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday by winning the 10-meter air rifle for the Czech Republic. Emmons, the wife of American shooter Matt Emmons, finished with an Olympic record of 503.5 points after shooting a perfect 400 in qualifying. Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver and Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took the bronze. The big surprise was a fifth-place finish by China's Du Li. She won the event four years ago in Athens. Du was just a point behind Emmons after qualifying. Du was greeted with a roar from the fans in the upper balcony of the shooting range when she came out for the final. She turned to face the crowd with a wide smile on her face, waved and bowed before heading over to her lane. However, she misfired immediately in the final round, scoring only 9.8 points on her first attempt, the worst shot of any of the eight finalists. Competitors can earn up to 10.9 points per shot in the final. Jamie Beyerle of Lebanon,finished fourth.Emmons won by 1.4 points, a comfortable margin for the event. She entered the final shot all but assured of victory. Of course, her husband was in a similar spot four years ago in the three-position rifle event. He missed out on a gold medal because he fired at the wrong target on the final shot -- an unthinkable gaffe. Matt Emmons did win a gold in prone rifle in Athens, and will compete in both prone and three-position rifle this year.


Saina storms into second round
New Indian badminton sensation Saina Nehwal storms into the second round of Beijing Olympics badminton event here on Saturday। World No 15 Saina took just 26 minutes to beat face 30th-ranked Russian Ella Karachkova at the Beijing University of Technology gymnasium on the opening day. In the second round she will meet the winner of the tie between Ukraine's world number 27 Gryga Larisa and Italy's Allegrini Agnese, ranked 55th. If the 18-year-old Hyderabadi progresses further, she could run into world number six Chen Wang of Hong Kong in the pre-quarters.

Women`s archery team on target; enters quarters
The Indian trio of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Dola Banerjee and Pranitha Vardineni did enough to ensure that the women's team, courtesy its sixth place finish in the ranking rounds, got a bye in the first round of the Olympic archery event.