BHOPAL: Local shooter Ashi Chouksey overcame a strong field, including Olympians Anjum Moudgil and Shriyanka Sadangi, to clinch her maiden national title in the 50m rifle 3-positions event at the 67th National Shooting Championship on Sunday.
Ashi shot a superb 466.7, finishing a full 3.1 points clear of two-time Olympian Anjum at her home range, the MP State Academy. Upcoming shooter Sakshi Sunil Padekar of Maharashtra won the bronze with an effort of 451.3.
Ashi, who has been in excellent form over the past two years and was also a part of the Paris Olympic Games trials, extended her run of good performances with a solid 590 in qualifications. She entered the eight-woman match-up in third place.
Bhakti Bhaskar Khamkar of Maharashtra topped the qualification field with a blazing 592, while Anjum qualified second, her effort of 590 containing more hits to the inner-10 ring than Ashi. Sakshi took the sixth spot, while another Olympian, Shriyanka Sadangi, qualified seventh.
In the final, however, Ashi was in a different league altogether. She opened up a 2.3-point gap over Anjum at the end of the first 'Kneeling' position round. She maintained the lead after the 15 shots in the second 'Prone' position as well.
The lead increased to 2.9 points after 10 shots in the last 'Standing' position and, despite a few high 9s after that, the result was never in doubt.
Ashi then capped off her day with a silver medal in the junior women's 3P event, rounding off a highly successful outing.
In the junior women's 3P event, Karnataka's Anoushka H Thokur shot 460.5 in the final to upstage Sakshi, who settled for silver on 456.3. Haryana's Nishchal, an ISSF World Cup silver medallist last year, shot 443.9 to claim the bronze medal.
However, both Anjum and Sakshi did pick up gold medals on the day, winning the women's 3P senior and junior team events respectively.
Anjum, partnering fellow Olympian Sift Kaur Samra and Vanshika Sahi, totalled 1766 for the team gold for Punjab, while Sakshi teamed up with Prachi Gaekwad and Saniya Sapale to clinch the junior women's 3P team title with a tally of 1747.