Golden-fingered duo

Shooters Sharmin Akhter Ratna (R) and Syeda Sadia Sultana. Ratna and Sadia brought smiles to Bangladesh once again as they won the women's 10m air rifle pair event of the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: STAR FILE

South Asian Games gold medalists Sharmin Akhter Ratna and Syeda Sadia Sultana checked India's gold spree in the Commonwealth Shooting Championships to bring laurels for Bangladesh when they jointly shot gold in the women's 10m air rifle pair event at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi in India yesterday.
Ratna (396) and Sadia (394) together fired 790 and won gold ahead of Indian pair Priya Agarwal (393) and Neha Sapta (389) who together made 782, to ensure the Bangladesh national anthem is played for the first time in the tournament.
It was double delight for Ratna as she was awarded a batch competition gold after having finished top with individual score of 396 while Sadia was awarded silver for the second best individual score in the competition.
It was also Bangladesh's second medal in the meet as Asif Hossain Khan, teaming up with Shovon Chowdhury, won the bronze medal in the men's 10m air rifle pair event on the opening day on Friday.
"It is a great pleasure for me because it was another international gold medal for me," Ratna told The Daily Star by phone from Delhi.
"We knew it quite well that the Indian world-class shooters would dominate the range in the event and we were not concerned about the fact. Rather we concentrated on our game and in the end we emerged champions and it was an unexpected result for us," said the 21-year-old girl from Magura, who rated her success in the Commonwealth Shooting ahead of the SA Games.
Ratna and Sadia brought only the second gold from the Commonwealth Shooting Championships after Sabrina Sultana, who won the 50m rifle prone gold in the second Commonwealth Shooting Championships held in Kuala Lumpur in 1997.
Ratna got off to an impressive start scoring 99 in her first shot and then made exact 100 before shooting 99 and 98 in the last two shots to end up with 396, two less than her best score of 398 set in the just concluded 11th South Asian Games at home.
Sadia was also not far behind as she also made 99 in her first shot. She managed only a 96 in the next shot but bounced back in the last two shots scoring 100 and 99 to end up with 394 which helped Bangladesh end the jinx as well as put behind the Indian world-class shooters.
Keeping the October's Commonwealth Games at the same place in mind, Ratna and Sadia wanted to assess their performance and concentrated on keeping their SA Games performance intact rather than thinking of clinching a medal though they were confident that they might win any medal if they could transfer their performance into the Commonwealth Shooting.
Except the opening day's bronze medal, it was a frustrating performance for the Bangladeshi shooters, especially male, who have been showing dismal performances and Ratna said that they were not worried over their male partners, saying that they were more or less maintaining there average.
The golden girl scored two less than her SA Games performance and said she was not worried over his performance.
"I am overall very happy with the performance," Ratna said. "I will try to keep the momentum in the individual 10m air rifle event tomorrow (Wednesday) and hopefully I will do well."
Ratna was also hopeful about her teammate Sadia, who just finished behind him making 394 and said they both would be able to keep the momentum in the individual event.
English pair Sheree Cox (390) and Sharon Lee (390) together scored 780 to win the bronze medal in the event.
In the 50m rifle 3 position event, Bangladeshi Toufique Shahriar Chandan and Abdullah Hel Baki finished fifth and six scoring a total of 1239.6 and 1235.3 respectively.
Both Chandan and Baki also bettered their performance as well as eclipsed Bangladesh's national record in the 50m 3 position event scoring 1143 and 1140 respectively in the qualification. Ramjan Ali holds the national record with 1133 in the event.
Meanwhile, Indian Sanjeev Rajput (1272.5), Gagan Narang (1269.3) and Imran Hasan Khan (1259.6) won the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.