Gold Coast (Australia): India’s Sanjeev Rajput clinched the gold medal in men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Saturday.

Sanjeev shot a total of 454.5 to create a Commonwealth Games record.

Grzegorz Sych of Canada finished second with 448.4 and Dean Bale of England bagged the bronze medal with 441.2 points.

Chain Singh, the other Indian in the fray, finished fifth in the standings with 419.1.

Rajput started the final with 150.5 in the Kneeling stage to take the second spot on the standings behind Sych.

He held on to the second position with a score of 306.9 by the end of the Prone round.

The Indian then produced a series of consistent scores in the Standing (Elimination) stage to clinch the title.

Earlier, Rajput and Chain took the top two spots in the qualification stage.

Rajput registered a Games record of 1180 to enter the final as the best shooter in the qualification stage.

Chain finished second in qualification with 1166 points.

Bale was fourth with 1163 while his compatriot Kenneth Parr scored 1158 to take the fifth spot.

Australia’s Dane Sampson (1154), Cameron Pirouet (1149) of Jersey and Pakistan’s Ghufran Adil (1145) also qualified for the final along with Sych (1145).

But the Indian contingent had to return empty-handed from the men’s Trap event as Kynan Chenai and Manavjit Sandhu failed to qualify for the final.

Kynan scored 117 to finish at a disappointing seventh position at the end of the qualification round. Sandhu was a spot behind his compatriot with 115.

The top six shooters in the qualification stage booked their tickets into the final.

(IANS)