Shooting sport

The two-time Commonwealth Games medal winner in trap shooting, including an individual gold at 1994 Victoria, Mansher adds that at one time, athletes had to wait for months to get clearance for international training and exposure trips under the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF), but it is a cakewalk at present, with TOPS ensuring every requirement of the athlete is taken care of. Following are excerpts from an interview with the four-time Olympian and winner of four medals at the Asian Games, including three silver:

Having bagged six medals, including five gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, and later translating that success at the 2012 London Olympics by clinching silver in 25m rapid-fire event, Vijay Kumar adds he is disappointed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) did not pursue the issue proactively for the common good of the Indian shooting fraternity.

With two more golds, India topped the medal tally, finishing with a total of 10 medals -- six gold, three silver and one bronze medals -- in the World Cup. Singhraj, who won two medals in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, on Tuesday claimed gold in the individual 50-metre Pistol Mixed Event and then combined with teammates Manish Narwal and Deepender to pocket the gold in the team event. The Indian paralympian finished fourth in the qualifying round with a score of 529, after a tie with JO Jeongdu of South Korea.

His efforts helped India stay on top of the medal standings with five gold, five silver and three bronze medals with two more days of competitions left. India also won a bronze today with the 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) women's team of Anjum Moudgil, Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey, winning their bronze medal match up 16-06 against Austria.

The Men's 3P team then won silver, going down 12-16 to the Czech Republic in the gold medal match, to give India a second medal in the day. Sunday's efforts thus saw India hold on to top spot in the medal standings yet again with four gold, five silver and two bronze in their kitty. Korea is next best with three gold and one silver medal. Anjum had qualified for the ranking round in Women's 3P on Saturday, finishing sixth in the qualifiers.

Rahul Jakhar came up with a superb performance to win the gold in P3 - Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 event while compatriot and Tokyo Paralympic Games double-medal winner Singhraj claimed the silver. Oleksii Denysiuk of Ukraine took the bronze medal, pipping another Indian, Nihal Singh, to the fourth position. India's second gold of the day came in the 25m pistol team event.

Arjun had qualified second to make it to the top-eight ranking round on Sunday, along with compatriot Paarth Makhija who had qualified in fifth place. The Chandigarh lad carried on his good form on Monday, topping the ranking round with a scintillating 261.1 to storm into the gold-medal encounter. Kozeniesky shot 260.4 to join him even as qualification leader Sergey Richter of Israel settled for bronze with a score of 259.9. Paarth had to be happy with fourth place with 258.1.

Shooting on competition day two at the DKSSR, Niraj was dominant in the Men's 3P match throughout. He topped the first qualification round with a score of 585/600 and then the eight-man ranking round with an effort of 403.8 to make the gold medal match. Tiwana who came second to make it to the final, was way behind in the ranking round with a score of 400.4.

Lekhara shot 458.3 in the R8 - Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 finals to take the gold ahead of experienced Paralympic stars Veronica Vadovicova (456.6) of Slovakia and Sweden's Anna Normann (441.9). Vadovicova and Normann took the silver and bronze respectively. The promising shooter from Rajasthan made a slow start to the finals but quickly got back her rhythm to produce consistent shots, including over 10 scores in the last three rounds, to emerge the winner.

The 20-year-old Narwal, who took the P4 mixed 50m pistol SH1 gold with a Paralympic record in his debut Games, teamed up with Singhraj, also a Paralympic medallist, and Akash to aggregate a total of 1581 to finish behind China (1628). Turkey took the bronze with a total score of 1565. The top Indian shooters, however, faltered in the individual event with Akash the only Indian to qualify for the P4 - Mixed 50m pistol SH1 finals.