Rahi, Mehuli and Niraj finish on top at National Shooting Trials
Olympian Rahi Sarnobat, mixed team rifle Asian champion Mehuli Ghosh, and Navy’s Niraj Kumar came out on top in their respective finals on day five of the National Selection Trials 3&4 for Group A Rifle and Pistol shooters at the at the Trishul Shooting Range in Dehradun.
In the women’s 25m pistol T4 final, 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Rahi produced a composed and clinical performance to outclass the field. She scored 40 hits in the final, finishing six points clear of Maharashtra’s Abhidnya Ashok Patil, who scored 34. Haryana’s Vibhuti Bhatia rounded off the podium with a score of 27.
Earlier in qualification, it was a close duel between Rahi and Olympian Rhythm Sangwan, both registering scores of 582. Rhythm with 18 inner 10 hits edged into the top spot in qualification with two more 10s than Rahi. Anjali Choudhary and Vibhuti Bhatia also shot identical scores of 579-17x, with Anjali clinching third place based on the count of inner hits.
The finals lineup also included Ishneet Aulakh (578-16x), Heena Sidhu (577-10x), Abhidnya Ashok Patil (576-21x), and Chinki Yadav (576-14x).
In the women’s 10 air rifle (ARW), Mehuli shot 253.6 to win T4 finals, after she finished second in qualification, just 0.2 behind Olympian Ramita Jindal (633.5). Meghana M. Sajjanar of Railways finished in second place with 253.1 while Sonam Uttam Maskar held her nerve in the eliminations and clinched third with 231.4, narrowly edging out Ramita (210) by 0.1 at the 20-shot mark.
The qualification leaderboard included Ramita, followed by Mehuli, Meghana (631.9), and Sonam (631.6). Tilottama Sen (631.4), Kashika Pradhan (631.1), T3 winner Narmada Nithin (630.5), and Rajshree Anilkumar (630.1) completed T4 final starting list.
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Navy marksman Niraj delivered a clinical finish in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) Men T3 final, scoring 463.9 to claim top honours against a star-studded line up. He held steady throughout the 45-shot final to outshot Army’s Babu Singh Panwar, who had earlier topped the qualification with an impressive 591-32x but settled for the second place in the final with 457.3. Two-time Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar settled for third place with a score of 447.0
The T3 qualifiers saw a fiercely contested field, with Paris Olympic bronze medalist Swapnil Kusale (590-42x) and Niraj (590-35x) close behind Babu Singh. Nikhil Tanwar (589-39x), Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu (589-27x), Rudrankksh Patil (587-30x), and Pratham Bhadana (587-30x) completed the top eight.
Same set of shooters will return to the firing line on Sunday for the T4 qualification and final round of men’s 3P event. The day’s schedule will also feature the 10m Air Pistol T3 qualifications and finals in both men’s and women’s categories.