Samresh Jung let go his chance of winning a record seven gold as he allowed his mind to waver in the 25m centre fire pistol tie-breaker and settled for bronze at the 18th Commonwealth Games shooting competition in Melbourne on Friday.
Jung, who was the leading Indian competitor with five gold going into the event, was in peak form in the precision and rapid round to tally 578 points, which tied him with Singapore's Shaw Ming On and Gregory Yelavich of New Zealand.
The 35-year old Indian had 290 in the precision rounds, which the best among the three. Ming On and Yelavich made up for the deficit with 289 and 290 in the rapid fire where Jung had 288.
In the shoot-out, however, the Indian could muster only 44 -- he dropped out of the first phase -- while Ming On produced a masterly 144 and Yelavich had an equally impressive 141.
It gave Singapore its first gold at the Games.
Another Indian in the fray, Jaspal Rana, who also holds the Games record of 583, ended up fourth with 577.
Jung said he let the thought of record medal tally affect him in the final round.
"It came to my mind, maybe I put additional pressure on myself," he said.
Jung has won gold in the 50m and 10m air pistol individual events and three more in the 25m standard, 25m centre fire and 25m rapid fire pistol pairs events.
The Delhi shooter still has 25m standard pistol individual event to go and finishing at the top there would see him equal the Games record of six gold medals currently held by Australian swimmers Ian Thorpe and Susie O' Neill.
