India on top hopes
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Amlan Chakraborty
Beijing, Aug 12 (PTI) After the euphoria over shooter Abhinav Bindra's gold-winning feat, India today slipped back into the familiar story of failure as marksmen and archers faltered on the fourth day of the Olympics Games here today.
The only silver lining for India came in the boxing ring where Haryana lad Jitender Kumar moved into the pre-quarter finals with an easy win over his Turkish rival Ulas Furkan Memis in a one-sided bout.
Shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, on a high after his silver medal performance in the previous Olympics in Athens four years ago, and Samresh Jung failed to find their touch and fell by the wayside in the qualifying round of double trap and 50m pistol events respectively.
The presence of Bindra at the Beijing shooting range did not have any effect as Rathore struggled to read targets and shot 131, which was just not enough to reach the business end of the event to stay in medal hunt.
Top six shooters made it to the final event from the 19-man field, which had Rathore placed 15th overall with 131 points.
A rusty Rathore was off to an unimpressive start when he shot 43 in the first round before managing 45 in the second.
An exceptional third round could have seen him through and Rathore began well too as he shot down the first eight pair of birds. But he ran into a wretched stretch midway through the round, throwing his bid in complete disarray.
Failure shattered the battle-hardened and strong-willed army man as he fought hard to hold back tears and hinted at calling it
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