Shooter Shreyasi Singh has bagged India’s 12th gold medal of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
Shreyasi held her nerve and capitalised on her opponent's lapses to win the women's double trap gold. Shreyasi was seven points behind Australia’s Emma Cox after the third round. Fortunately for the Indian, Cox recorded a score of 18 in the fourth round, while Shreyasi made up for the deficit with a score of 25. With both the shooters tied at 96, they went into a shoot off that eventually went in India’s favour.
The other Indian contender in the field, Varsha Varman finished fourth with 86.
The bronze medal went to Scotland's Linda Pearson who shot 87 to finish a point ahead of Varsha, who held the third place for a while.
The 26-year-old Indian thus improved on her silver medal-winning effort at the Glasgow Games four years ago.
"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 it 100 per cent," Shreyasi said.
"Emma (COX, AUS) is of course a brilliant competitor to be winning the gold medal against, so lots of wishes to her. She shot really well, too. But I think god is on my side and I'm feeling really lucky." Cox missed 12 of her 30 shots in the fourth round after placing herself in the gold medal position.
Shreyasi was on the second position while Varsha was on the third position after three rounds.
On her comeback after trailing in two rounds, Shreyasi said, "My coaches really helped me, and my family is also here so they were a big support for me. I just had it in me that I want to win the gold medal.
"I don't want to go back with another silver, I want to win the gold medal." Recently, she won a silver medal in the double trap event at the 2017 Commonwealth Shooting Championships.
Shreyasi, whose grandfather and father served in the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) as its president, represented the country in two events at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games Delhi but failed to win a single medal.
The Delhi-born Shreyasi won the individual silver medal in double trap in Glasgow and followed that by winning a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
The result at the ongoing Games ensured the experienced shooter won the elusive gold.
Asked about celebrating the victory, she said, "I'm shooting in trap as well so I've got to get back to training and then shoot a competition the day after, so there's not much of a party right now. But maybe later."
(With inputs from PTI)
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