India shooter wins fourth gold

Jung is the favourite to mop up golds in three remaining pistol titles

India's ace pistol shooter Samaresh Jung has picked up his fourth gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Jung won the men's 50m pistol individual medal beating Games record holder Michael Gault of England.

India has dominated the shooting ranges at the Melbourne Games.

India now has 14 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals and are placed behind Australia and England in the medals table.

India's Seema Antil opened the country's medal tally in athletics with a silver in the women's discus event behind South Africa's Elizna Naude.

Jung, 36, finished with 650.2 points as Gault failed to match the record 657.5 he shot in Manchester four years ago.

I am enjoying every moment of it Samaresh Jung

Jung, a Delhi-based federal security officer, has won three golds and a silver in the team events and is a favourite to take the three remaining individual pistol titles he is competing in.

"It was a good day out there because the wind was not as strong as in the past few days," he told the AFP news agency.

New record

"I am enjoying every moment of it. The confidence goes up after every event."

Jung's rifle shooting wife, Anuja, won the silver in the 50m Rifle 3 positions pairs on Sunday and will compete in the individual event on Thursday.

Indian shooters have performed exceedingly well at the Games.

Shooters Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Tejaswani Sawant have joined the veteran Jung in picking up gold medals.

Narang, a 22-year-old student from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, won the men's 10m air rifle final in a new Games record on Tuesday.

Narang, who earlier won two pairs events with Abhinav Bindra, picked up his third gold with 698.9 points to shatter the previous mark of 691.9 by Bangladesh's Asif Hossain in Manchester four years ago.

Pakistan picked up its first gold medal of the Games on Monday with a win for Shuja-ud-din Malik in the men's 85kg weightlifting event.

Surprise

Malik's combined 343kg in the clean-and-jerk, including a new Commonwealth record of 193kg, placed him ahead of. Cameroon's Brice Batchaya.

Late on Monday, India's men's table-tennis team shocked Singapore to win the gold medal in the men's team event.

Gagan Narang also picked up a gold in shooting

In weightlifting, Laishram Devi picked up a silver medal in the 69kg category in the clean-and-jerk, behind Jeane Lassen of Canada.

In table-tennis, India's women's team won a closely fought match against Canada, winning 3-2.

India has also won a surprise bronze in the mixed team badminton event, beating New Zealand.

India won 69 medals, including 30 gold, in the last Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Pakistan has a bronze medal to go with the gold medal it won on Monday, while Sri Lanka has a solitary gold and Bangladesh a silver medal so far.