Anish, Sift, Umamahesh win T3 of National Selection Trials

Olympians Anish Bhanwala, Sift Kaur Samra and Junior World Championship medallist Umamahesh Maddineni won the National Selection Trials (T3) for Group ‘A’ athletes in the 25m Rapid Fire Men, 50m 3 Positions Women and 10m Air Rifle events respectively which was held at the Trishul Shooting Range, Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun.

Anish shot 33 in the finals, four better than his statemate Adarsh Singh who finished in second place while Navy’s Pradeep Singh Shekhawat took the third place with a score of 23.

Sift Kaur Samra, who recently won bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, showed her class in the 50m 3 Positions Women’s finals by finishing on top with a score of 467.3 which was 10.4 better than Aaakriti Dahiya who finished second with a score of 456.9. Ashi Chouksey took the third spot with a score of 443.9 after she had finished on top in qualification with a score of 592.

In the 10m Air Rifle Men finals, Umamahesh Maddineni who shot 252.2 edged Buenos Aires World Cup gold medalist Rudrankksh Patil who finished with a score of 251.5 to secure the top spot. Divyansh Panwar took third spot with a score of 230.1.

The action will continue on Thursday with the qualification and finals of 10m Air Rifle Men T4, 25M Pistol Women T3 and 50m Rifle 3P Women T4 along with the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men T4 Stage 1.

These trials are aimed at helping the Indian shooting team for the 16th Asian Shooting Championships 2025 in Kazakhstan in August and ISSF World Cup in Ningbo, China in September.