E-Paper
Tejaswini finishes seventh, Anjali falters
Indian female shooters' miserable performance carry on in Doha as they lose against much junior players.
Star shooter Anjali Bhagwat performed miserably again while compatriot Tejaswini Sawant outdid her for the second event running by finishing seventh in the women's 50-m Rifle 3 Positions competition at the Asian Games in Doha on Wednesday.
Anjali was out of her depth after having flopped in the 50-m prone event and ended up a distant 22nd while Tejaswini outperformed her as well as Deepali Deshpande (19th) by reaching the finals before faltering in her bid for a medal.
Tejaswini, a gold medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games earlier in 2006, fired a total of 672.9 (578+94.9) points in the event in which the gold medal winning score was 685.4 (585+100.4) by Chengyi Wang of China.
Tejaswini began with a perfect round of 100 in the prone, in which she shot 99 in her second attempt. But her performance slid subsequently in the standing (95+91=186) and kneeling (95+98=193) positions, where she was way off target.
In the final, she shot three impressive rounds of 10.5, 10.1 and 10.1 but her below-par qualification score had already put paid to her aspirations.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna recipient Anjali, who had put up as dismal a display earlier in the 50-m prone event where she finished 21st, carded disappointing 569 (196+187+186) while Deepali, another experinced shooter, was 19th with 570 (197+187+186).
Both the senior shooters failed to emulate their much junior compatriot and stumbled out in the qualifying rounds.
Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan, who won the gold in the prone event, claimed the silver medal with a tally of 682.3 (586+96.3) and Yoon Kyung Na of Korea took the bronze with 680.2 (581+99.2).
