New Delhi:
With his dream of winning a gold medal in the ongoing Commonwealth Games fulfilled, Omkar Singh has now trained his eyes on the Guangzhou Asian Games and other upcoming international tournaments.
Omkar combined with Gurpreet Singh to win a gold in the men's 10-metre air pistol pairs event at the Karni Singh Shooting Range on Thursday. He had earlier won the yellow metal in men's 50m pistol event on Wednesday.
"I am very happy. Now that I have won here, I have set new targets to cross. I'm really delighted to win this gold on my motherland," an overjoyed Omkar said, moments after his medal-winning feat.
"I am very happy and I will try to do my best in the future," he added.
The unassuming shooter admitted that it took a while for him to realise what he had achieved until he saw the giant electronic scorecard.
"I actually didn't realise that I have won the gold medal until I saw the scorecard," Omkar said.
His partner, Gurpreet, who had earlier won the pairs 25-metre rapid fire pistol event partnering Vijay Kumar, was on the move the whole day as he was scheduled to compete in two events.
A handful of spectators present at the 25-metre final range were seen jostling for the lad from Amritsar after the completion of the event.
"I have to go as I have got an event very soon," Gurpreet said before making his way out through the side door.
Ronjan Sodhi was another Indian to have won a medal today. The double trap world record holder prevailed in a nail-biting three-way shoot-off to win the silver medal in his pet event, after England's Steven Walton clinched the gold.
"I missed two initially in the final round. But I was hitting the targets well, so I was confident with my technique," Sodhi said.
"I shot a 44 (in the third round of the qualification), and I missed five targets from one station. Probably, I didn't get the point right. I think 139 is not a bad score, but I was definitely under pressure, especially after our silver medal yesterday. A lot of them were expecting gold," he said.
The double trap World Cup gold medallist had words of appreciation for young teammate Asher Noria, who lost out to Isle of Man's Timithy James Kneale in the bronze medal play-off.
"One thing I would like to point out is that Asher was very impressive. For him, it is such a big stage with everybody watching us, but he really kept his cool. Even at the shoot-out tie, he was shooting very, very well," Sodhi said.
"I'm happy with the way we finished. I'm sure he's a future Olympic medalist."