India won the men's 10m air rifle team gold to open their account in shooting at the ninth SAF Games in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Helped by the brilliant performance of Sajeev Rajput and Salim Hanifa, who won the individual silver and bronze medals respectively, the Indian team, also comprising Sandeep Tarte, claimed the men's team gold with a tally of 1763 points, ahead of Bangladesh (1757) and Pakistan (1729).

Bangladesh's Mohammad Asif won the individual gold. Right from the start there was enough indication of a tough fight between Asif and Hanifa as the two shooters matched each other for accuracy.

But Asif had a four-point cushion at the end of the fourth details in the qualifying and maintained his form in the final scoring 103.6 points.

Asif bettered his showing at the Manchester Commonwealth Games. The 18-year-old intermediate student had shot 584 and 104 in Manchester to win the gold.

Salim Hanifa, who scored the highest score of 105 in the final, had to console himself with the bronze medal as he had failed to maintain consistency in the final ten shots and collected only 101.5 points, while Rajput obtained 102.8 points in the final for the silver medal.

Results:

Men: 10m Air Rifle (Team): 1. India (1763 points; Sanjeev Rajput 589, Salim Hanifa 589, Sandeep Tarte 585); 2: Bangladesh 1757 (Md Asif 590, Mohd Shoyab 586, Anwer Uza 581); 3. Pakistan 1729 (Dawood Jan 578, T Muhammad 577, M Muhammad 574) .

Individual: 1. Mohammad Asif (Bangladesh) 693.6, 2. Sanjeev Rajput (India) 691.8, 3. Salim Hanifa (India) 690.5.