Glasgow 2014: Reduced Events Yet Shooting Remains Best Bet for India

In 2010, Abhinav Bindra was the flag bearer of opening ceremony. Of the 101 medals and 38 Golds earned then, maximum 30 medals with 14 Gold medals came from shooters. In 2014 at Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the events of shootings were reduced from 44 to a drastic 19. India’s flag bearer remained another shooter at opening ceremony, Vijay Kumar. Shooting still earned India the maximum medals, overall 17 out of 64 medals, although the Gold medals were reduced to 4, second best behind Wrestling. Even among nations its rank dipped from first to third behind Australia (6 Gold) and England (5 Gold), despite earning the maximum medals among all nations. Gagan Narang despite injuries became the only overall Indian athlete to win 2 medals in 2014. So did something went wrong? Or was it just the reduced number of events? Let us analyze the performance of Indian shooters in 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014: List of Medal Winners of India
Indian Performances at Glasgow: Judo, Athletics

Indian Men vs Women
Overall 16 Men and 13 Women participated in the Shooting events, winning 17 medals. Participating in 9 events, 17 Men shooters earned 2 Gold medals, 5 Silver medals and 3 Bronze medals.
13 Women participated in 9 events to win 2 Gold medals, 4 Silver medals and a Bronze.

Medals in Events Reduced Compared to 2010
Glasgow had 7 events for women and 11 events for Men in the pool of 19 events for Shooting.
Pistol
Indians recorded 7 Gold medals, 3 silver and 3 Bronze in 10 Pistol events for Men. Indian women were equally dominant winning 3 Gold medals and 2 Silver medals in 4 events.
In 2014, in 4 Pistol events for Men, and Jitu Rai earned Gold, while Prakash Nanjappa, Harpreet Singh and Gurpal Singh won Silver medal.
In 2 Pistol event for Women, Rahi Sarnobat won Gold, while Malaika Goel and Anisa Sayyed won silver medals.

    10 m air for both
    25 m for women
    25 m centre fire for men
    25 m rapid fire for men
    25 m standard for men
    50 m for men

Rifle
Delhi CWG has 6 events for Men and Women each besides 2 events for Full Bore Rifle. Glasgow had only three rifle events each for Men and Women category. Among Men Abhinav Bindra again won the Gold, while Gagan Narang, and Sanjeev Rajput won Silver medals, while Gagan Narang won a silver and bronze, and Sanjeev Rajput won a silver.
Women also earned three medals. Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul won Gold and Silver for 10 metre air rifle, while Lajja Gauswami won the Bronze.

    10 m air for both
    50 m 3 positions for both
    50 m prone for both

Clay Targets
In 2010 6 events were for Men and 2 for Women. Indians won 3 Silver and one Bronze in Men’s Categories. In Trap Singles Manavjit Singh Sandhu won the Bronze in 2010 and repeated same result in 2014.
In Doubles Trap Singles, in the absence of 2010 Silver medallist Ronjan Sodhi, Mohammed Asab won the Bronze medal.
In Women’s Doubles Trap, Shreyashi Singh got India a silver. In 2010 none of the women won in the two Trap events, as Doubles Trap was missing then.

    Trap for both
    Skeet for both
    Double trap for men

Indian Shooters and Results in 2014
25 m pistol Women

    Gold Rahi Sarnobat
    Silver Anisa Sayyed

10 m air rifle Men

    Gold Abhinav Bindra
    4th Ravi Kumar

10 m air rifle Women

    Gold Apurvi Chandela
    Silver Ayonika Paul

10 m air pistol Men’s

    4th Prakash Nanjappa
    9th Om Prakash (Did not qualify for Finals)

10 m air pistol Women

    Silver Malaika Goel
    7th Heena Sidhu

25 m rapid fire pistol Men

    Silver Harpreet Singh
    Vijay Kumar Failed to Qualify

50 m pistol Men

    Gold Jitu Rai
    Silver Gurpal Singh

50 m rifle 3 positions Men

    Silver Sanjeev Rajput
    Bronze Gagan Narang

50 m rifle 3 positions Women

    Bronze Lajja Goswami
    9 Elizabeth Susan Koshy (Did not qualify for Finals)

50 m rifle prone Men

    Silver Gagan Narang
    Joydeep Karmakar 9th (Did not qualify for Finals)

50 m rifle prone Women

Double trap Men

    Bronze Mohammed Asab
    Semifinal Ankur Mittal

Trap Men

    Bronze: Manavjit Singh Sandhu
    Did not Advance Mansher Singh

Trap Women

    Shreyasi Singh and Seema Tomar failed to go beyond Qualification round.

Skeet Men

    Mairaj Ahmad Khan and and Baba P.S. Bedi did not qualify for semifinals.

Skeet Women

    Arti Singh Rao failed to qualify for finals

The increased number of silver medals were a concern but overall 17 medals in 17 events is a commendable performance.

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