CWG 2010 Medal Tally : 32 Gold Medals and counting

India's medal haul at the Karni Singh Shooting Range continued on Tuesday even as Gagan Narang’s hopes to take his tally to six gold medals in as many events at the Commonwealth Games went up in smoke.

A gold in the women’s 10m air pistol pairs, combined with silver medals in the men’s 25m standard pistol pairs and women’s 50m rifle prone singles, took India’s shooting tally to 28 medals ( 14 gold, 10 silver and four bronze), surpassing the 27 won at Melbourne in 2006.

Narang did not let his fans down in his event — the men’s 50m rifle prone pairs — on Tuesday.

He shot 593/ 600, just one point behind the pacesetter, former Olympic champion Warren Potent of Australia.

But the other Indian in the competition, Hariom Singh — who was struggling with the flu — could manage only 580, thus ending India’s chances of a medal. The gold went to Scotland’s Neil Stirton and Jonathan Hammond with 1,181 points, while Englishmen Mike Babb and Richard Wilson shot 1,178 to take the silver.

Buoyed by Potent’s 42 perfect 10s, the Australians took bronze ahead of Northern Ireland, despite both finishing on 1,174.

It was learnt that the Indian team tried to get Imran Hassan Khan to replace Hariom for the singles event on Wednesday, but the Commonwealth Shooting Federation rules do not allow for such a swap after the shooter in question has performed in an event.

But thankfully, that was the lone dark moment for India on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh beat Australia and Canada in the women’s 10m air pistol pairs. Though both youngsters showed a bit of inconsistency, they were helped by the fact that none of the other countries was perfect either. Australia and Canada also finished on 759, the same score as the Indians, with the women from Down Under even having the same number of perfect 10s — 21 — as the hosts. But on the countback rule, Heena’s final round of 97 helped India bag the gold.

At the 25m range, Samaresh Jung was taking part in his first event this time around, with Chandrashekhar Kumar Chaudhary giving him company. Jung shot brilliantly in the 150- second series for a score of 195 before Singapore’s Bin Gai edged ahead of him in the 20- second series.

Chaudhary was way off the mark in the 20- and 10- second series to finish with a total of 542, 19 points behind his teammate.

This meant India finished 13 points behind Singapore’s 1,116, with England taking bronze courtesy Michael Gault and Iqbal Ubhi.

Tejaswini Sawant, who shot a poor 583 in the rifle prone pairs the previous day, got back into the groove and scored 594. But Scotland’s Jen McIntosh still finished ahead of her with a remarkable 597, which broke the Games record by seven points. Johanne Brekke of Wales finished third.