Medals poured in for India as shooters launched their campaign in spectacular fashion winning three gold and one silver on the opening day of the event at the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Friday.
Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle pairs event and set a new Games record with a total of 1189.
- Commonwealth Games coverage | Images Their women counterparts Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu also grabbed the yellow metal aggregating 791 at the Wellsford Rifle Range at Bendigo.
Saroja Kumari Jhuthu and Sushma Rana repeated their air rifle mates' performance in the women's 50m air pistol pair event claiming the third gold medal with an overall score of 1140.
Samresh Jung and Vivek Singh bagged the silver medal amassing 1082 points in the men's 50m pistol pair event at Melbourne International shooting Club.
Bindra and Narang fired excellent individual scores of 591 and 598 respectively ahead of Bangladesh's Mohammad Asif Hossain Khan and Anjan Singha, who scored 1181. They finished with 1189 points, erasing the Games record of 1184 set by Bindra himself in Sameer Ambekar's company in Manchester in 2002.
The bronze went to the Singapore duo of Ong Jun Hong and Zhang Jin who finished with 1177.
But Jung's chances of taking home eight golds fell on the first day of the event as his partner Vivek Singh and he had to settle for the silver with the individual scores of 547 and 535 respectively.
Australian pair of David Moore and Daniel Repacholi dethroned defending champions Jung and Singh by four points, finishing with 1086 against the Indians' tally of 1082.
Jung, the hot favourite in pistol events, lost on the gold due to his partner's uncertain form who mostly scored in 80s.
Moore had won the silver with Bruce Quick in Manchester.
England won the bronze medal through Nick Baxter and Mick Gault who fired 1078.
In the women's events, new faces in Tejaswini and Avneet lived up to the expectations as they shot 395 and 396 for the top honours.
Tejaswini was picked ahead of Manchester Games gold medallist Anjali Bhagwat, who will be seen in action only in women's three position event this time.
Canadian duo of Monica Fyfe (391) and Cylthia Hamulas (390) won the silver pipping Singaporeans Yu Zxen Vanessa Yong (390) and Jingna Zhang (391) in a tie-breaker after shooting equal scores of 781.
Jhuthu and Rana, making a debut in the Games, finished six points ahead of their Australians counterparts Pamela Mckenzie/Lalita Yauhleuskaya 1134 (564569), who won the silver while Canada Avianna Chao/Kim Eagles 1130 (556574) won the bronze.
More from rediff