Indians For Guns

TC wrote:They have made the country proud. I have a feeling there will be more.

Best wishes for the Indian contingent

TC

India’s Apurvi Chandila beat her compatriot and world number eight Ayonika Paul in an exciting battle to clinch the gold medal in the women’s 10-metre air rifle finals of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the Barry Buddon Shooting Range here on Saturday.

For Apurvi, the gold was her maiden international medal, while Ayonika clinched her second, having won World Cup bronze in Slovenia last month.

The two medals came shortly after Prakash Nanjappa won silver in the men’s 10-metre air pistol event.

A day after ace marksman Abhinav Bindra bade adieu to the Commonwealth Games with a gold, the guns boomed loud for India, as their participants won five medals at the Barry Buddon Shooting Range.

It was an interesting battle in the women's 10m air rifle event as Apurvi beat World No.8 Ayonika in an exciting battle to grab the gold - her maiden international medal. Ayonika clinched her second international medal, having last month picked up the World Cup bronze in Slovenia.

World No.17 Apurvi, who topped the qualifications with 415.6 points (a Commonwealth Games record), led in the finals right from the start and shot 206.7 points to give India their second gold medal from shooting.

The 21-year-old Ayonika was fourth in the qualification round with a score of 413.2 points and clinched the silver with a score of 204.9 in the final round.

India logged another pair of medals in women's 25-metre pistol. Rahi won the event, with Anisa finishing second.

In the final, Rahi, who hails from Kolhapur, proved too good for Anisa by shooting a total of eight points to her 33-year-old opponent's mere two. The duo had raised hopes of a double triumph in the semi finals itself, where 23-year-old Rahi topped with 16 points while Anisa finished second with 14 to enter the summit clash.

Earlier, Prakash Nanjappa won the silver in the men's 10m air pistol event. For Nanjappa it was a great comeback story after having been detected with Bell's palsy, a form of facial paralysis, last year.

TC wrote:They have made the country proud. I have a feeling there will be more.

Best wishes for the Indian contingent

TC

anubhav_rulez wrote:Kudos to all of them...they certainly have made India proud. Keeping fingers crossed hope this changes government view towards shooting fraternity.

bennedose wrote:

anubhav_rulez wrote:Kudos to all of them...they certainly have made India proud. Keeping fingers crossed hope this changes government view towards shooting fraternity.

My personal view on this is as follows.

The government per se does not give a damn. The same news portal that reported the above news also reports the way the government promised Saina Nehwal a cash reward 2 yeasrs ago and then forgot.

The background intention in my mind for starting this thread is to promote the fact that shooting is a sport and the sprts equipment used is guns. Therefore shooters and guns do not mean violence and mayhem. I think we need to use news items and opportunities such as these to promote the fact that guns have a legitimate role in society and people with guns should not face automatic censure or labelling as violence prone. We need to do that in India. We need to do it well, and urgently and persistently.

We have to change mindsets before mindsets change us.

After a fruitful Saturday, India started Day 4 of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at No. 5 in the standings. Shooter Shreyasi Singh gave the Indian contingent a great start on Day 5 by winning silver in the women's double trap event. Asab Mohd then gave Indian fans another moment of pride by winning the bronze medal in the men's double trap event.