National Games shooting: Jonathan, Sift strike gold

Jonathan Gavin Anthony | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Samra Sift Kaur of Punjab won the gold in 50m Rifle 3-positions event at the 38th National Games in Dehradhun on Monday. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Jonathan Gavin Anthony has got a lot to think about these days. His 10^th standard board exams are coming up later this month and he has the National shooting trials next week. But he pushed out all those out of his mind on Monday and produced a stunning performance that shocked Paris Olympic medallist Sarabjot Singh and fetched the Bengaluru boy the men’s 10m air pistol gold at the National Games shooting competition here.

“I was a bit nervous at the start but after a bit it became okay. After the first five shots, I was confident and I thought I’d win,” said Jonathan (240.7 points) who at 15 became the youngest shooter to win a gold in the Games’ Uttarakhand edition here. “This is the biggest gold of my life.”

Services’ Ravinder Singh (240.3) and Gurpreet Singh (220.1) took the silver and bronze while Sarabjot, who had won the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze with Manu Bhaker at the Paris Olympics, went without a medal finishing fourth.

Jonathan, who picked up shooting from his mother, has taken a month’s break from academics to focus on the Games here. “From now on, I’m going to focus on studies,” said the youngster.

Meanwhile Olympian Sift Kaur Samra, the World record holder and the Asian Games champion, won the women’s 50m three-position gold (461.2 points) beating her Punjab teammate Anjum Moudgil (458.7) while Telangana’s Surabhi Bharadwaj Rapole (448.8) took the bronze.

“This feels like a comeback after the Olympics, I didn’t take a break after Paris and continued to train,” said Sift who finished 31^st at the Paris Olympics.

Vidarsha Vinod, from Kerala, who topped the pack after the kneel position, fell back (she finished fifth) allowing Sift to move ahead while Madhya Pradesh’s Ashi Chouksey, who went past the World record in the qualification round on Sunday, was seventh.