Golden treble in shooting for India

It was a golden day at the Bisley shooting ranges at the Commonwealth Games for India on Monday. They picked three more gold medals to add to the four won over the last three days to swell their tally for seven gold and two silver at the Games.

Mukesh Kumar and Bhanwar Lal Dhaka won the first gold of the day, winning the men's 25 metre Rapid Fire Pistol - Pairs event.

The duo tallied 1141 points and finished ahead of South Africa's Allan Stuart McDonald and Frederick Willem Van Tonder, who won the silver with a score of 1131. Bruce Favell and Bruce Quick of Australia took the bronze with a score of 1127.

"It was not that easy to get gold; it was a big fight, all were doing well. The South African team, New Zealand and Australia had done well in the badge matches and we didn’t," said Kumar after the victory. He added: "Bhanwar Lal and I were not trying to beat anyone. Our motivation is to do our best -- not to worry about how other shooters are getting on. If you start thinking about that in shooting, you can’t do well."

Anjali Bhagwat and Raj Kumari took the second, winning the women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions Pairs final. The duo scored 1140 points to finish well ahead of Susan Mccready and Susannah Smith of Australia (1131) and Canada's Sharon Bowes and Cari Johnson (1123).

Jaspal Rana and Samresh Jung rounded off the day's gold-glut, winning the men's 25m Standard Pistol Pairs final. They proved too good for the rest of the field, scoring 1130 points. Philip Adams and Bruce Quick of Australia, with 1118, were way behind. Daniel Francois Van Tonder and Frederick Willem Van Tonder of South Africa (1116) got the bronze.

The other gold medallists are Abhinav Bindra and Sameer Ambeker - in the men's 10 metre Rifle Pairs; Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur - women's 10 metre Air Rifle Pairs; Moraad Ali Khan - Rajyavardhan Singh - men's Trap Pairs, Samresh Jung -Vivek Singh - men's 50 metre Pistol Pairs.

Jaspal Rana and Samresh Jung had won a silver in the men's 10 metre air pistol. The other silver medal winners were Shweta Chaudhary and Sheila Kanungo, who won the women's 10 metre Air Pistol Pairs.

Results:

Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol - Pairs Final: 1 Mukesh Kumar & Bhanwar Lal Dhaka (Ind) 1141, 2 Allan Stuart McDonald & Frederick Willem Van Tonder (SA) 1131, 3 Bruce Favell & Bruce Quick (Aus) 1127, 4 Peter Clark & Leslie Pearson (Eng) 1110, 5 Michael Smith & Jason Wakeling (NZ) 1106, 6 Kashif Riaz & Zahid Ali (Pak) 1099.

Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions - Pairs Final: 1 Anjali Bhagwat, Raj Kumari (Ind) 1140, 2 Susan Mccready, Susannah Smith (Aus) 1131, 3 Sharon Bowes, Cari Johnson (Can) 1123, 4 Nurul Hudda Baharin, Roslina Bakar (Mas) 1116, 5 Julie Daltrey, Sian Corish (Wal) 1113, 6 Donne Potgieter, Judith Jacoba Bartleman (SA) 1101, 7 Sabrina Sultana, Fawzia Karim (Ban) 1099, 8 Kumari Pussella, Pushpamali Ramanayake (Sri) 1097, 9 Claire Griffin, Rebecca Spicer (Eng) 1091, 10 Lynda Sinclair, Janis Thomson (Sco) 1068, 11 Jacquelyn Elaine Forde-Brome, Cheryl Mayers (Bar) 1046

Men's 25m Standard Pistol Pairs Final: 1 Jaspal Rana & Samresh Jung (Ind) 1130, 2 Philip Adams & Bruce Quick (Aus) 1118, 3 Daniel Francois Van Tonder & Frederick Willem Van Tonder (SA) 1116, 4 Irshad Ali & Zahid Ali (Pak) 1114, 5 Peter Clark & Michael Gault (Eng) 1111, 6 Jason Wakeling & Greg Yelavich (NZ) 1091, 7 Robert Thomas & Steve Pengelly (Wal) 1091, 8 Robert Carroll & Bruce Lillburn (Sco) 1085, 9 Chester Aurelius Foster & Floyd Fitzgerald Reid (Bar) 1079, 10 Andre Malherbe & Friedhelm Sack (Nam) 1078, 11 Suranga Fernando & Gamini Walgama (Sri) 1051