By IANS,
New Delhi: Ace rifle shooter Gagan Narang’s dream of surpassing Samresh Jung’s tally of five gold medals in the Melbourne Games suffered a serious setback Tuesday after his partner Hariom Singh refused to take medication for viral fever for fear of failing a dope test. Hariom struggled and the duo finished a disappointing fifth in the men’s 50 rifle prone pairs event here Tuesday.
While Narang, who had four gold medals in his kitty, shot an impressive 593, Hariom, who was running high fever, could shoot only 580 leaving India at the fifth spot in the 50m rifle prone pairs event.
A crestfallen Hariom said: “It was very bad. I have not been well for four or five days, so I could not concentrate properly. I could not take medicine also because of the doping issue.”
The Indian team management wanted to field Imran Hasan Khan in place of Hariom, but the proposal was shot down by Commonwealth Shooting Federation (CGF) president Graeme Hudson.
“The technical delegate Graeme Hudson did not approve the change as it was against the rules,” said an Indian official.