National Shooting Trials: Rhythm Sangwan beats Manu Bhaker; Sift Samra tops women’s rifle 3-position

Sift Kaur Samra was in dominant form as she topped the women’s rifle 3-position event yet again with a score of 464.8, beating Olympian Anjum Moudgil by 3.1 points in the national shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad, on Friday.

The Asian Games gold medalist and world record holder, Sift, had topped qualification earlier with 595 out of 600, five points better than the second Bhakti Bhaskar, who eventually placed fourth.

Priya was third, ahead of Shreya Saksena, Surabhi Rapole, Ayushi Podder and Mahek Jatana.

In women’s 25-metre sports pistol, Rhythm Sangwan was in top form in the final, as she beat qualification topper and Olympic quota winner Manu Bhaker (590) 35-32.

Olympian Heena Sidhu climbed to the third spot, overtaking Chinki Yadav, TS Divya, Simranpreet Kaur Brar, Abhidnya Patil, and Olympian Annu Raj Singh.

Even though she had qualified for the final in seventh place with a modest score of 578, Rhythm was able to assert herself in a strong field.

In men’s air rifle, Kiran Jadhav topped both the qualification and final with scores of 633.4 and 252.8 respectively. He beat Hriday Hazarika by 2.3 points in the final.