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Noria ushers in golden moment
Asher Noria’s dominance in double trap was so absolute that the 16-year-old was assured of gold with three shots remaining in the final, reports Abhijeet Kulkarni.
Asher Noria’s dominance in double trap was so absolute that the 16-year-old was assured of gold with three shots remaining in the final.
Noria scored 180 points, one more than what Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had scored in Athens.
The shooter, who trains under world record holder Ronjan Sodhi, shot a 46 and 48 in the first two rounds but a lowly 41 in the third pegged him back. “I got complacent after the first two rounds and that's why I had a bad third round,” Noria said later.
He made amends in the final round with a 45 to bag gold with an eight-point margin. Philip Smith of South Africa won silver with a total of 172 while Chester Cobb of England bagged bronze with 167 points.
Deepika, Laksha add to tally
Deepika Patel and Laksha Bansal added two more gold to India’s tally while Rushad Damania won a bronze.
Laksha won the 25m sports pistol event with a score of 567, 20 points more than Canada’s Matthew Hendry. The bronze went to Australia’s Arron Wilson.
Deepika kept her nerves in the final to pip leader Wahidah Binti of Malaysia with a consistent performance.
She entered the final trailing the Malaysian by a point but Wahidah scored a dismal 6.1 in her second shot and the Indian just needed to maintain her advantage to take gold. Singapore’s Eunice Chong registered a 10.9 in the 10th and final shot to upstage Wahidah for the silver.
