Gold Coast, Australia: Shreyasi Singh had a premonition when she reached the Belmont Shooting Complex that she would not return to the Games Village empty-handed on April11. Her confidence grew after her first practice shot, and by the time the double trap competition ended, she had conquered a tough field, including Australia’s Emma Cox, to emerge champion.
Ankur Mittal recovered from a difficult position to win bronze in double trap, while Om Prakash Mitharwal struggled with malfunction issues but still managed bronze in 50m free pistol. Seasoned pistol shooter Jitu Rai could not add to his 10m air pistol gold despite making it to the finals.
It was the last opportunity for Shreyasi and other double trap shooters to corner glory one last time at the Commonwealth Games as the shotgun event will not be a part of the 2022 Birmingham Games and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. While the multiple time national champion and her counterpart Ankur were successful, Varsha Varman in the women’s section and Mohd Ashab in men’s weren’t that lucky despite good performances, finishing fourth in their respective sections after giving the medal winners a tough fight.
Silver-medalist at the 2014 Glasgow Games, Shreyasi was tied for the top spot with Cox after the first round in which she hit 24 targets out of 30. But with the weather conditions changing, alternating between sunny and cloudy, Shreyasi could manage only 22 in the next series and dropped to second.
Cox shot superbly and held a 7-shot lead going into the third series. However, with the weather playing traunt, the Australian hit a bad patch, managing only 18 and giving Shreyasi the chance to tie the scores at 96 at the end of the competition. In the shoot-off, Shreyasi ‘killed’ both the clay targets while Cox could manage only one, giving the Indian the gold medal.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
