67th National Shooting Championship: Mane pips Srikanth in close fight to bag air rifle gold

Shahu Tushar Mane beat Dhanush Srikanth by 0.1 point to clinch the men’s air rifle gold in a spectacular climax in the 67th National Shooting Championship at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Monday.

Shahu led by 0.1 point before the last two shots, and Dhanush matched him on the last two shots with identical 10.6 and 10.5, for an unbelievable finish.

Yash Vardhan won the bronze as he pipped world champion Rudrankksh Patil by 0.1 point.

Smit Moradiya, qualification topper Himanshu (632.5), Mukul Kumar and Ravi Kumar were the others to make the final.

A determined Rudrankksh marched to the junior gold later with a strong performance in the final, as he shot 254.9 to beat Abhishek Shekar by 4.5 point. Himanshu managed to climb to the bronze.

Himanshu was eventually able to assert his class in the youth final as he beat Yash Pandey by 2.2 points for the gold.

Meanwhile, in the skeet competition at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad, Fatehbir Singh Shergill and Munek Battula topped the men’s field with 123 out of 125. Bhavtegh Singh Gill and Divyaraj Singh took the next two spots in the final with 122, while Olympians Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa made the cut with 121.

Asian Games silver medallist, Olympian Anantjeet Singh Naruka shot 119 and missed the final by two points, along with Zorawar Singh Bedi.

In women’s skeet, Olympian Raiza Dhillon was a class apart as she shot 122, following rounds of 25, 25, 24, 23 and 25, to be four shots ahead of World Cup medallist Ganemat Sekhon. Yashasvi Rathore, Vanshika Tiwari, Asees Chhina and Shivani Raikwar were the others to make the final.

Shivani won the shoot-off 2-1 against Darshna Rathore and Karttiki Shaktawat after being tied on 111, to clinch the last spot.

All the finals, including the ones for the juniors, will be shot on Tuesday.