DELHI Student Shreyasi Singh Wins Gold In Gold Coast

Delhi born and studying in Delhi University’s Hansraj College Shreyasi Singh has bagged India’s 12th Gold medal in the Women’s Double Trap event at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. The 26-year-old shooter bettered her record from 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where she had claimed the silver medal. Shreyasi Singh, it may be recalled, has supportive family. Her grandfather Kumar Surendra Singh and father Digvijay Singh were both presidents of the National Rifle Association of India in their lifetimes. Her father was also former union minister. Her mother Putul Singh is also an Ex-MP from Banka in Bihar. An excited Shreyasi told media “I’m feeling really well. In 2014, I won the silver and I was really upset that I couldn’t win the gold but now, also I was trailing, but when I got the opportunity to fight more and fight harder in the shoot off, I was really happy about that, and I gave my 100 per cent,” Shreyasi said.She had shot 96 points in the finals at Gold Coast and defeated Australia’s Emma Cox two shots to one in the shoot-off. The bronze medal went to Scotland’s Linda Pearson who shot 87 to finish a point ahead of Varsha Varma, the other Indian shooter in the event securing third position.Shreyasi had earlier represented India in two events at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games Delhi but failed to win a single medal. Four years later in Glasgow, she won a silver medal in double trap event and followed it up with a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. She won silver at the 2017 Commonwealth Championships in Brisbane, Australia.Besisdes Shreyasi, her twp other compatriots have won bronze medals. They are Om Mitharval and Ankur Mittal.Shreyasi aggregated 96 in the finals, same as Emma Cox, but prevailed over the Australian in a shoot-off by striking down both birds even as the Indian’s opponent missed the target in her second attempt.Harvard University student Varsha Varman finished fourth with 86, narrowly missing out on a bronze to Scotland’s Linda Pearson, who shot 87.Om Prakash Mitharval settled for the bronze medal in the men’s 50m pistol event with 201.1 but the fancied Jitu Rai finished a disappointing 8th with 105.0.Ankur Mittal added to the medal rush by winning a bronze in the men’s double trap event even as Mohammed Asab (43) finished fourth, a climb-down from the bronze he had  won in Glasgow four years ago.

Mittal finished third on the podium after scoring 53 in the finals at the Belmont Shooting Centre.In the men’s 50m pistol, both Jitu, who won gold two days earlier in the 10m air pistol and Om Prakash Mitharval, bronze winner in the same event, qualified for the eight-man final. However, while Om Prakash repeated his performance to notch up his second bronze of the Games, Jitu finished eighth with a score of 105 and was the first to be eliminated at the 12th shot mark.Om Prakash had earlier topped qualification with a score of 549 out of 600 while Jitu had qualified sixth with 542.Australian Daniel Repacholi won gold in the event with a finals score of 227.2, a Games record while Bangladesh’s Shakil Ahmed bagged silver with 220.5.In day’s last shooting final, Mittal shot 53 out of 60 to go out in third place while Asab shot 43 out of the first 50 targets.