Anwar fares badly under windy conditions

Sydney: It was a day which Indian shooting champion Anwar Sultan would like to forget. He had a disastrous round of 63 out of 75 in the trap event ofthe Olympics shooting competition on Saturday, which almost ended his hopes of making it to the final round.

The 38-year-old shooter from Uttar Pradesh, who was one of the few sportspersons from the country to have directly qualified for the Games, found himself trapped in the windy condition at Cecil Park Shooting Range and nothing went right for him.

On a day of low scores, Anwar lay 31st in a field of 41 trap shooters. The Indian realised that wind was blowing against him when he missed three targets in his first round of 25, but worse was to follow.

He missed five targets in the next round and could hit only 21 birds in the third round to aggregate a poor 63 (22, 20, 21) to be clubbed with four other shooters on this slot.

He now has only 25 shots left and even if he hits all of them on Sunday, it will be virtually impossible for him to find a place in the first eight to make it to the final.

Australia's Michael Diamond leads the field, followed by Giovanni Pellielo (Italy), Ian Peel (Britain) and David Kostelecky (Czech Republic), all at 70. George Leary (Canada) has 69 and Rodolfo Vigano (Italy) 68.

Anwar did not take part in the World Cup held in New Delhi as he was practising abroad. Though there were persistent demands that he should not be sent to Australia, coach Marcello Dradi had forcefully defended Anwar saying he achieved the qualification against all odds. The selectors supported Dardi's claim and stood by the shooter.

Anwar had clinched the Olympics slot after he finished second in the Asian Shooting Championship at Langkawi (Malaysia) in January this year with a score of 143 out of 150.

UNI