Kumar Surendra Singh Championship: Monu clinches gold after Sarabjot fumbles in the last series

Trailing by a full point before the last shot, Monu released his shot quick, and then the spectators took over, putting pressure on Sarabjot who delayed his last shot and eventually fumbled to 8.9, which undid all his good work.

Monu Tomar (right) anxiously waiting to see Sarabjot Singh's score, after a quick release of his last shot in men's air pistol final at the Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship in New Delhi.

Monu Tomar of Air Force delivered a 10.2 on the last shot to win a dramatic gold in men’s air pistol in the 19th Kumar Surendra Singh Shooting championship which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Sunday.

Trailing by a full point before the last shot, Monu released his shot quick, and then the spectators took over, putting pressure on Sarabjot who delayed his last shot and eventually fumbled to 8.9, which undid all his good work.

Sarabjot Singh who had won the Asian junior gold earlier this season, had topped qualification with 584, and was driving smoothly to the gold, before the intense climax took its toll on his nerves.

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Commonwealth Games champion Omkar Singh shot the bronze ahead of Sagar who led till the 14th shot, before a string of 9s brought him own.

Gaurav Rana, Amanpreet Singh, left-hander Anhad Jawanda and Yogesh Singh were the others to make the final, while the Asian Games gold medallist and World Championship silver medallist, Jitu Rai shot 579 and missed the final on the count of "inner 10s" along with Sharvan Kumar.

Sharvan went on to win the junior and youth silver medals, behind World champion Vijayveer Sidhu and Naved Choudhary respectively.

It was another dramatic last shot that drew attention in the junior fight for gold, but Vijayveer had built such a good lead that even a 8.7 last shot failed to stop him from grabbing the gold.  Sharvan did shoot 10.3 on the last shot, but Vijayveer won by 0.6 point. Kunal Rana won the bronze, as Sarabjot slipped to the fourth place.

The day concluded with another dramatic climax in the youth section, as Naved and Sharvan were tied before the last shot. Naved delivered 10.6 as against 9.5 by Sharvan to win the gold in style.