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Published on August 14, 2007

On Sunday night the Thai sharpshooter wrote a card for her mum Janya, expressing how much she felt grateful to be born her daughter and pledging she would give her all to win the women's double trap gold medal. She kept her word.

The local shooter, a gold medalist in the SEA Games last year, surprised two fancied opponents - Rachel Parish of Great Britain, the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and Slovak Zuzana Stefeckenkova, the World Cup trap champion - with a score of 100 points to capture the first Thai shooting gold medal in the Universiade.

Parish, who led the Thai by two points in the first two series, ended with 96 points to take the silver, while Stefeckenkova, who bagged the women's trap gold a few days ago, fired 88 for the bronze.

"I couldn't sleep last night and woke up at 4.30am," said the 22-year-old English major from Assumption University.

But there was more than the promise between mother and daughter. Just before Janejira went into the final shoot-out, her mother told the shooter that for every point above 34, her normal score, she would get Bt10,000. Apart from making mummy proud, she also made Bt20,000 for the 36 score she shot in the final.

"I hardly shot beyond 34, so mum just made a bet with me. It turned out to be a major boost," said Janejira, who will unfortunately have to stop taking part in her pet event as it does not figure in the Olympics or World Cup. She will compete in the women's double trap for the last time in the SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, and will then switch over to the women's trap.

Later in the day, the women's 50m rifle prone team fetched Thailand their second and final gold from shooting. The trio of Ratchadaporn Plengsaeng-thong, Sasithorn Hongprasert and Paramaporn Plengsaeng-thong fired an aggregate 1,743 to take the top spot.

Trailing behind them were China (1,742) and Russia (1,741).

The unofficial scores on the digital TV showed that the Chinese team was on top and the three Thais were preparing themselves to settle for a silver, but when the scorecards were carefully examined, the Thai team was one point better.

"First it said I scored 96, but after the official verification, I got 97. I am so glad the deciding point came from me," said Sasithorn, a law student from Bangkok University.

"It was a relief to finally win because of the all-round expectations. It was a lot tougher than we had imagined," said Ratchadaporn.

In the men's double trap individual, Athimeth Khamgasem of Thailand narrowly lost to Alexander Furasyev of Russia 180-181 to take the silver. Furasyev also contributed to the Russian victory in the team event.

The men's 50m rifle prone individual was taken by Ukrainian marksman Maksym Komirenko, firing 696.1. Germany won the team event.

Pistol king Leonid Ekimov of Russia bagged his second individual gold, firing a total of 686.5 in the 10m air pistol. He triumphed in the 25m rapid-fire pistol on Saturday. South Koreans dominated the team gold.

China swept both individual and team gold in the women's 25m pistol. Wang Jie Yi scored 785.7 to claim the individual category.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation