Anjum beats Chandela to top table, Rajput pips Dhillon, Narang to third spot

Olympian Gurpreet Singh, with a score of 573, topped 25m standard pistol standings.

Anjum Moudgil topped the 10m air rifle standings.

After dominant performances in women’s rifle 3-position and prone events, Anjum Moudgil was equally at ease in topping women’s air rifle in the shooting National selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Tuesday. The Chandigarh girl, Anjum beat World Cup Final silver medallist, Olympian Apurvi Chandela  by 2.9 points to top the table after having topped the qualification phase with an impressive total of 628.5. Shriyanka Sadangi pipped national champion Elavenil Valarivan to the third place, while World University Games gold medallist Vinita Bhardwaj placed fifth, ahead of Asian champion and World Cup medallist Pooja Ghatkar.

Read: Moudgil, Bhanwala stand out Shreya Agrawal topped the junior women’s final with a total of 250.6, as she pipped Mehuli Ghosh by a half point, leaving Elavenil Valarivan to the third spot. Mehuli did well to compile a total of 627.1. In women’s air pistol, national champion Manu Bhaker of Haryana continued to hold sway as she topped in both the women’s and junior competition, and missed the top spot by 0.1 point to Poorva Gaidwad in the youth section. More than her prowess in the three finals, Manu showed her class by shooting 575 in qualification, with a consistent series of 96, 95, 97, 97, 95 and 95 which was one point behind leader, the young Devanshi Rana who had a 94 on the last card which stopped her from registering a much superior score. Heena Sidhu, who already has top scores from the recent international and national events to gain a berth in the national squad, and has thus been working on a few technical aspects, opted not to record a score in the second selection trial. In men’s rifle prone, which is not an Olympic event any more, and thus features no final, Akhil Sheoran topped with 624.1, comfortably ahead of Navdeep Singh Rathore. Olympian Sanjeev Rajput pipped Junior No.1 Fateh Singh Dhillon, Olympian Gagan Narang fractionally to take the third spot. World championship finalist Hariom Singh was 21st with 614.6 while Joydeep Karmakar, who had placed fourth in the London Olympics, was 38th with 612.2. Olympian Gurpreet Singh topped in standard pistol with a modest score of 573, ahead of Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar and Mahaveer Singh. Anish Bhanwala who had topped in rapid fire pistol settled for the sixth place with 567.

The results:Men:25m standard pistol: 1. Gurpreet Singh 573; 2. Vijay Kumar 572; 3. Mahaveer Singh 571. Junior men: 1. Udhayveer Sidhu 567; 2. Anish Bhanwala 567; 3. Vijayveer Sidhu 564. 50m rifle prone: 1. Akhil Sheoran 624.1; 2. Navdeep Singh Rathore 622.0; 3. Sanjeev Rajput 620.7. Junior men: 1. Fateh Singh Dhillon 620.5; 2. Pruthviraj Ayachi 619.7; 3. Ron George Valiyaveetil 616.6. Women: 10m air rifle: 1. Anjum Moudgil 250.5 (628.5); 2. Apurvi Chandela 247.6 (625.9); 3. Shriyakka Sadangi 226.1 (625.3). Junior women: 1. Shreya Agarwal 250.6 (623.8); 2. Mehuli Ghosh 250.1 (627.1); 3. Elavenil Valarivan  228.4 (624.5). 10m air pistol: 1. Manu Bhaker 240.3 (575); 2. Yashaswini Singh Deswal 238.6 (572); 3. Shweta Singh 217.3 (570). Junior women: 1. Manu Bhaker 241.8 (575); 2. Poorva Gaikwad 236.2 (567); 3. Anushka Patil 215.9 (567). Youth women: 1. Poorva Gaikwad 239.1 (567); 2. Manu Bhaker 239.0 (575); 3. Esha Singh 215.1 (569).