On Their Mark?

Tipped to be the country's best prospects in the Beijing Olympics, shooterslay low in the year gone by with Manavjit Singh Sandhu being the lone highlightfor winning the country's highest sporting honour - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.

Manavjit, who became World Champion and also the top ranked trap marksman,overshadowed the feats of ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh and star cricketer RahulDravid to win the award.

India added only three more quota places through Samresh Jung (pistol), SanjeevRajput (rifle) and Mansher Singh (trap) to have a team of nine shooters for theOlympics.

Indians flopped at the end of the year Asian Championships in Kuwait and coachSunny Thomas felt his shooters failed to handle big event pressure again.

Double trap shooter Ronjon Sodhi, pistol shooter Harveen Srao and Sushma Ranawere among the strong contenders to qualify for the Olympics in what was theirlast chance, but were disappointed.

Harveen hit the headlines earlier in the year for becoming the firstInternational Universiade shooting champion by defeating Athens Olympics goldmedallist Ukrainian Olena Kostevych in the women's 10-metre air pistolindividual event in Bangkok.

Rajput was fortunate to win the Olympic quota by scoring 1170/1200 in Free Rifle3 position after being placed 11th at the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning,Atlanta, United States, as shooters ranked up to 10th position had alreadyqualified for Beijing.

Rajput also set national records in the 50M Rifle 3 Position and 50M Rifle Proneduring the ISSF World Cup and the Australia Cup at Sydney.

During the latter, he set a new mark in the 50M Rifle Prone with a score of597/600.

In the finals also, he set a new record with a score of 699.10, therebyimproving on the previous mark of 698 set by Satguru Das in 2002. He grabbed thebronze medal in this event.

Samresh Jung qualified for the Beijing Olympics in Air Pistol events at the ISSFWorld Cup held in Munich to became the eighth shooter to get a quota place andthe first Indian to earn it in Pistol events.

Earlier, Abha Dhillan (1992) and Jaspal Rana (1996), both pistol shooters, hadparticipated in the Olympic Games on a 'Wild Card Entry'.

Mansher Singh won the Olympic quota in the Trap event with a leading score of12218=140/150 at the ISSF World Cup held at Lonato, Italy. He was tied forfourth position with the first four already having won the quota.

Tejaswini Sawant showed excellent performance at the Australia Cup, winning twogold medals in the 50M Rifle Prone and 10M Rifle. She, however, could not claiman Olympic berth.