AHMEDABAD
Rhythm Sangwan on Sunday fell just short of an epic come-from-behind first-place finish in the women’s 10m air pistol final at the 36th National Games.
After topping the qualification with 582-16x, the 18-year-old from Haryana got off to a horrid start in the ranking leg and was at the bottom of the pile for a while during the first series, when she registered 49.2 compared to 50.9 shot by leaders Anuradha Devi and Divya TS.
She shot 49.4 in the second series, but the average showing from five other shooters brought Rhythm back in contention.
A 10.3 off the last shot in the third series saw her gradually climb to the fifth spot with a score of 50.8.
With 50.1 in the following series, Rhythm moved into the second slot and eventually displaced Yuvika Tomar from the top - 1.2 points clear of the Uttar Pradesh markswoman.
However, she seemed to have lost all her momentum in the final – hitting two 8s - and Yuvika thrashed Rhythm 16-6 to take gold. Divya of Karnataka won bronze.
In the men’s side, Vijayveer Sidhu and Shiva Narwal, both part of the World Championship squad in 10m air pistol, bagged the gold and silver respectively. Naveen, the other candidate heading to Cairo, had a forgettable outing and finished outside the top-eight.
Although Haryana's Shiva topped the ranking match, Vijayveer earned Punjab more points with an emphatic 17-5 finish.
The 50m rifle 3 positions contest was a tight affair, with both Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar not looking to give an inch in the gold medal game. However, it was Niraj who romped home with a scoreline of 17-11. Veteran shooter and Olympian Deepak Kumar won bronze.
Interestingly, Niraj had just managed to scrape through to the ranking match, finishing eighth in qualification, while Aishwary had topped both qualification and ranking only to falter in the final few minutes.
Comments
SHARE