Two gold, one silver for India at C`wealth Shooting C`ship

Zeenews Bureau New Delhi: Indian shooters gave a golden start to the Commonwealth Shooting Championship when Gagan Narang and PT Raghunath won gold in the 10m Air Rifle pairs event here on Friday before Anisa Sayyed and Anurag Singh added another gold to the Indian tally in the 25m Pistol Pairs event. Virat Singh and Bapu Vanjare, then, won silver in the 50m Free Pistol pairs event to give India their third medal. The Indian duo of Narang and Raghunath scored a deadly 599 pts and 594 pts respectively to give India a solid start. India will host the Commonwealth Games here at the national capital later in October and the Commonwealth Shooting Championship is the first of the CWG championships played at the Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad.The Indian team lacked the presence of eminent shooters like Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, world record holder Ronjan Sodhi, the seasoned trap shooters Mansher Singh and Anwer Sultan, the world championship finalist Avneet Kaur Sidhu and two of the finest pistol shooters Heena Sidhu and Harveen Srao. However, the absence did not hamper India’s hopes as Narang and Raghunath played to the best of their abilities to grab the gold for their country. National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) named a 43-member Indian squad for the eighth edition of the Championship, which will see top shooters from 12 nations vie for honours.