Milestone of India - Commonwealth Games - Narang outshines Bindra, Omkar takes gold.

ON TARGET...AGAIN!Gold medallist Gagan Narang (left) and Abhinav Bindra, who won the silver, strike a pose for lensmen after the 10m air rifle singles event on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: It was a fight against the self for Gagan Narang as he clinched the air rifle gold by bettering his own World record with a total of 703.6, and incidentally beat the Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra by a mile, as shooting added three more gold and three more silver medals to India's collection in the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.

Starting with a World record score of 600, Narang shot 103.6 in the final to improve the final World record by 0.1 point.

The records may not be ratified as the ISSF accepts World records set only in the Olympics, World championships, World Cups and Continental championships.

In what was tipped to be a battle of the giants, Bindra was unable to match Narang's searing form.

‘Par excellence'

“Gagan is outstanding, a shooter par excellence. I have no doubt in my mind that he will win the World championship and the Olympic medal some day,” said Bindra, even as he expressed happiness about his own fighting performance.

“I was trying to get into my shooting shoes, when Abhinav was already established.

“Shooting is an individual sport, and you fight against yourself. We enjoy good relations and have a lot to learn from each other,” said Narang, who has four more events to focus in the Games.

Omkar Singh was a class act in the 50-metre free pistol event, as he overcame a deficit of one point against Bin Gai of Singapore in the qualification phase, to eventually outclass him by four points.

Training with Satendra Kumar in Coimbatore, the 26-year-old Omkar compensated for the silver in the pairs event the previous day.

A silver medallist in air pistol in the World Cup in Sydney this year, Omkar will have a chance to add two more medals in air pistol.

Anisa Sayyed looked to have preserved her best for the individual event in sport pistol as she beat compatriot Rahi Sarnobat, the heroine of the pairs event, by 5.8 points for the gold.

“I was dreaming about this. We had trained hard in the camp. We need to work harder to qualify for the Olympics. The next target is the Asian Games,” said Anisa.

The World record holders Ronjan Sodhi (95) and Asher Noria (93) lost the double trap pairs gold by one point to the Englishmen despite a classy fare.

Both Ronjan and Asher missed the last bird, but said that it was more a technical issue, than a matter of pressure.

Delighted

The Englishmen were delighted.

“We are chuffed. We had felt a lot of pressure especially after Ronjan shot 50. I thank Walton for shooting better than me,” said Steven Scott, who shot 93 compared to 96 by Walton which fetched the duo the Games record at 189.

The Australians led by world and Olympic champion Russell Mark were beaten to the bronze by the Malaysians.

The Indian shooters took their tally to five gold and five silver medals from the Karni Singh range in Tughlakabad.