Local lad Arpit Goel beat a strong field to clinch the gold in men’s rapid fire pistol on the opening day of the 18th Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Wednesday.
After qualifying in the fifth place with a modest score of 575, Arpit was unstoppable in the final as he topped the table with 34 hits. A series of four successive perfect 5s and three 4s marked his ascendancy to the top as he beat qualification topper Shivam Shukla (584) by five points.
Anish Bhanwala, the young shooter, who has been shining brightly in the international circuit, shot 583 in the qualification phase, and opted to skip the finals in both the men’s and junior sections. He watched the men’s final and was the only one clapping for the best shoots among the sparse gathering.
Anish’s absence did rob some intensity from the finals, but it was a good outing for the rest, especially London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar who recovered some of his magic touch to shoot 579 in qualification and bagged the bronze eventually, winding up in style with a perfect 5.
Other seasoned shooters Harpreet Singh, Pemba Tamang and Neeraj Kumar failed to make the final. Ajitesh Kaushal benefited by the withdrawal of Anish, but was not at his best in the final, as he placed sixth behind Adarsh Singh and Olympian Gurpreet Singh.
The experience of competing in the final looked to have helped Adarsh, as he went on to bag the junior gold later, one point ahead of the 13-year-old Harshwardhan Yadav.
The results
Men:
25m rapid fire pistol:
1. Arpit Goel (34) - 575
2. Shivam Shukla (29) - 584
3. Vijay Kumar 25 - 579
Junior men:
1. Adarsh Singh (22) - 574
2. Harshwardhan Yadav (21) - 557
3. Mandeep Singh (17) - 565
Comments
SHARE