Islamabad, Mar 30: India picked up their first gold in the ninth SAF Games when the shooting trio of T Sandeep, R Sanjeeva and S Haneefa topped the table in the 10m air rifle (60 shots) team event at the Pakistan National Sports Complex shooting range here today. Nepal bagged the silver through Chanas Rai and Asim Yadav while Dawood Jan and T Mohammad gave-hosts Pakistan the bronze in this event.
In the qualifying rounds, both Sanjeeva and Haneefa totalled an identical score of 589 and Sandeep scored 585. While Sanjeeva scored 98, 99, 98, 98, 99 and 97 in the six qualifying rounds, Haneefa started promisingly scoring 97 and a perfect 100 in the first two rounds but then slided down a little to score 97, 98, 98 and 99.
Sandeep, in the qualifying rounds, scored 97, 97, 98, 99, 96, and 99.
Bureau Report