Melbourne: There is a woman behind every man's success, they say. And Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang must thank Anjali Bhagwat for their gold in the rifle three position team event at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.
The entire Indian shooting squad and the supporters were stunned when Bindra's rifle suffered a malfunction after only 10 shots had been fired with 40 more remaining in his event.
Coach Sunny Thomas tried to repair the equipment but in vain. He then quickly rushed to the village to obtain Anjali's rifle.
"We had 15 minutes of repair time and the barrel and the trigger were replacedfrom Anjali's equipment to Bindra's, who could not adjust to the rifle initially," he said.
"Bindra is one shooter in the country who quickly adjusts himself to new pistols," he added.
True to his coach's words, Bindra showed his tenacity to finish fairly well in the prone position with a 390 compared to Narang's 394.
As the event progressed, the pair's shooting improved.
In fact, Bindra's accuracy in the difficult kneeling position was noteworthy as he top scored with an individual 386.
In the final analysis, Bindra (390-368-386) and Narang (394-379-370) were 18 points ahead of silver medallists, Australia's Michael Brown and Ben Gurge.
A beaming Bhindra said after his victory that "shooting is 99 per cent luck and one percent training. This is one of the best finals in my career so far".
Comments
0 comment