Rahi, Mehuli and Niraj finish on top at national shooting trials

DEHRADUN,: Olympian Rahi Sarnobat, mixed team rifle Asian champion Mehuli Ghosh, and Navy’s Niraj Kumar came out on top in their respective finals of the national selection shooting trials 3 and 4 here on Saturday.

In the women’s 25m pistol T4 final, 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Sarnobat produced a 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 grabbed the top spot in qualification with two more 10s than Rahi. Anjali Choudhary and Vibhuti Bhatia also shot identical scores of 579-17x, with the former 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 10m air rifle, Mehuli shot 253.6 to win the T4 final, after she finished second in the 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 ended third with 231.4, narrowly edging out Ramita (210) by 0.1 at the 20-shot mark.

The qualification chart 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.

Navy marksman Niraj delivered a clinical finish in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) T3 final, scoring 463.9 to claim top honours in a star-studded line up. He was steady throughout the 45-shot final to outgun Army’s Babu Singh Panwar, who had 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 the third place with a score of 447.0.
The T3 qualifiers saw a fierce competition, with Paris Olympic bronze medallist 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.

The same set of shooters will return to the firing line on Sunday for the T4 qualification and final round of men’s 3P event.

Sunday’s schedule will also feature the 10m air pistol T3 qualifications and finals in both men’s and women’s categories.