ASIAN-IND-2NDLD SHOOT 2LST

While Sodhi won the top honours in the individual, he
combined with Asher Noria and Vikram Bhatnagar (16, 130) to
rake in the team bronze medal with a combined aggregate of
403.
Noria shot 46, 45 and 43 in the qualification while
Bhatnagar came up with a sequence of 47, 40 and 43.
The gold went to China (414) and the silver was grabbed
by Kuwait (407).
Noria (134, 11th) and Bhatnagar (130, 16th), however,
could not make the finals of the individual event.
A visibly relieved chief coach Sunny Thomas said Sodhi
had redeemed the situation that looked bleak for the shooting
squad which had come here with a lot of hopes after scooping
30 medals, including 14 gold, in October's Commonwealth Games.
"I heave a sigh of relief. Sodhi has broken the jinx and
got us ultimately what we wanted, a gold which was eluding us.
Even on the first day we missed the gold by a whisker (and
ended up with two silver in the 10m air rifle event)," said
Thomas.
"It's the perfect gift Sodhi has given on Guru Nanak's
birthday today. He has given us the gold to celebrate," said
Thomas who will step down from his post after 17 years in the
job.
"When he went into the final he trailed by four points
and then to win it by 3 points is a great feat," he added.
"This shooting team is extremely good. There are some
extremely good shooters who shot extremely bad. It has never
happened before. I don't know what was happening," he
reiterated.
Bronze-winner Al Marri of Qatar said the shoot-off for
the medal was a tough one.
"It was very hard. It needed strong passion. It was the
most difficult part," he said.
With only the skeet events left, in which India has very
few hopes, the Indian shooting squad could, in all probability
return with only eight medals as compared to the 14 (3 gold, 5
silver and 6 bronze) won in Doha in 2006. PTI