CHENNAI: If Tilottama Sen finished second during the prone trials on Monday, the national champion managed to top the 50m rifle three position Selection Trials T1 for Group A at the Karni Singh Shooting Range on Tuesday.
Niraj Kumar of Navy won the men’s event. In the 25m rapid fire pistol T1, Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu secured the top spot.
The 50m 3P finals was played in the new ISSF format but that did not deter Tilottama, who recently won 11 medals in the 68th National Shooting Championship finish on the top ahead of Ashi Chouskey with a slender lead of 0.6. The Karnataka shooter finished with a score of 360.1 while Ashi finished with a score of 359.5. Manini Kaushik of Rajasthan finished in third place with a final score of 347.5.
Tilottama and Ashi had earlier qualified for the finals in top two spots with scores of 594 and 592 respectively. Surabhi Bharadwaj Rapole of Railways (589, 311.7 in finals), Vidarsa K. Vinod of Kerala (588, 336.3 in finals), Ayushi Podder of Railways (588, 322.6 in finals), Anjum Moudgil of Punjab (587, 204.7 in finals) and Mansi Kathait of Railways (587, 299.2 in finals) completed the finals lineup.
Niraj Kumar dominates the men’s field
Navy’s Niraj Kumar produced a consistent performance throughout the finals, securing top spot with a final score of 360.5 which was 3.6 more than Adriyan Karmakar of West Bengal who finished with a score of 356.9. National Champion, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar finished third with a score of 346.7.
Aishwary, representing Madhya Pradesh had qualified for the finals with a score of 595, while Ganga Singh of Army qualified second with a score of 593. Swapnil Kusale of Railways (592), Rudrankksh B. Patil of Maharashtra (592), Chain Singh of Army (590) and Kiran Ankush Jadhav of Navy (588) completed the finals lineup.
Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu wins 25m Rapid Fire Pistol T1
The 25m Rapid Fire Pistol finals, which was also played in the new ISSF format, with eight shooters qualifying for the finals instead of six saw Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu of Punjab securing the top spot. The 23-year-old shot 29 in the finals, two more than Vijayveer Sidhu who finished with 27. Mandeep Singh of Haryana took the third spot with a score of 20 after surviving a shoot off against National Champion Suraj Sharma who finished with a score of 18. Udayveer Sidhu (14), Neeraj Kumar (11), Omkar Singh (7) and Ankur Goel were the other finalists.
Other Results: 50m Rifle Prone Men T2
1. Swapnil Suresh Kusale (Railways) – 628.5
2. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (Madhya Pradesh) – 628.3
3. Nikhil Tanwar (Navy) – 625.4
50m Rifle Prone Women T2
1. Anjum Moudgil (Punjab) – 625.1
2. Nupur Kumrawat (M.P) – 624.2
3. Ashi Chouksey (M.P) – 622.9