The shooting selection trials are sometimes tougher than some of the international competitions. With touch competitions among peers, the scores are high and one small miss can lead to slide in rankings. On Monday, World Championships silver medallist Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had an incredible round of shooting to finish on top in men's while Manini Kaushik did the same in the women's side of the 50m 3P on the first day of the Rifle/Pistol National Selection Trials 1&2 (Group A) in New Delhi. Very little separates the top shooters.
Manini was on top of the women's 50m rifle prone T1 with a total of 625.0 and her series read 104.7, 104.2, 102.3, 104.6, 104.2, and 105 while Karnataka's Tilottama Sen finished behind her with a score of 622.6. Kerala's Vidarsa K Vinod managed 622.0 for third finish. Just 0.4 separated shooters placed from fifth to eighth.
Punjab's Sift Kaur Samra (620.4) was eighth.
In the men's 50m rifle prone Trials 1, Aishwary stamped his class, finishing on top with 629.6. The 50m 3P national champion combined a high opening series with a controlled finish to create a clear buffer of 3.2 at the top with 105.3, 105.4, 105.7, 104.9, 103.7, and 104.6.
Former world champion Akhil Sheoran claimed second place with 626.4, while current national champion Swapnil Kusale finished third with 625.3. Army shooters Nishan Budha (623.8) and Chain Singh (622.9) followed behind on fourth and fifth positions respectively. Navy's Nikhil Tanwar (621.9), Army's Babu Singh Panwar (621.6) and Navy shooter Niraj Kumar (620.6) completed the top eight.
In T1 of 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event, Omkar Singh of Navy leads the lineup after Stage 1 of qualification with a score of 295-14x while Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan and Ankur Goel of Uttar Pradesh are in second and third places respectively with scores of 292-9x and 291-10x.
World Championship silver medallist Anish Bhanwala shot 286-12x and is currently in seventh place.
The finals of 50m Rifle 3 Positions (T1) for both men and women will also be held on Tuesday along with the T2 finals of 50m rifle prone events.
(PTI inputs)