Mehuli Ghosh and Abhinav Shaw made a spectacular fight back before Anjum Mudgil and Arjun Babuta closed it out for a 16-12 victory in the mixed air rifle team competition in the 12th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range,
Tughlakabad, on Tuesday.
Anjum and Arjun led 12-0, before the Bengal pair won six of the next seven shots to bridge the gap to 12-14.
The two-point difference also came about as Bengal had lost the ninth shot by 0.2 point.
After a bad start, the young Abhinav had found his touch to provide able support for the ever so consistent Mehuli that saw Bengal leap into contention for the gold from obscurity.
However, Anjum shot 10.7 and Arjun had 104 to clinch the last two points with ease, as Mehuli and Abhinav shot 10.3 and 9.9 respectively.
The combined total of the two shooters of the two teams is compared, after each shot, and the higher total fetches the team two points. The first to reach 16 with a difference of two points is declared the winner.
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It was the second gold for Anjum, the World Championship silver medallist, who had earned the first of seven Olympic quota place thus far, for Tokyo. She had won the women’s air rifle gold by beating Mehuli.
In the match for the bronze, Olympian Ayonika Paul and World Cup gold medallist Akhil Sheoran combined strongly to help Railways beat Aayushi Gupta and Saurabh of Uttar Pradesh 16-10.
Divyansh Singh Panwar and Barkha Chauhan had put Rajasthan on top in the first stage of qualification with 627.0. However, Divyansh had 94.3 in the second stage after 104.9, which pulled the team to the sixth spot.
In women’s 25-metre sports pistol, the seasoned Pushpanjali Rana of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) found her rhythm in the nick of time, and beat back the challenge form Ruby Tomer of Punjab Police, winning the shoot-off 4-3 after the two had tied on 28. Ruby had led Pushpanjali 18-12 at one stage, but two perfect rounds of 5 each and a four put Pushpanjali on the track for gold.
A shooter has to shoot 10.2 or better for a shot to be counted as one in the final, and they fire five shots in each series.
The junior contest was more intense with Arunima Gaur winning the gold by beating Vishwa Jigneshbhai Dahiya 32-29. Abhidnya Patil won the bronze in both the women’s and junior sections.
In men’s centre fire pistol, Olympic Gurpreet Singh shot 585 to beat Arpit Goel and Yogesh Singh to the gold. Samaresh Jung did well to shoot 580 for the sixth spot.
Arjun Singh Cheema won both the men’s and junior gold medals in the 50-metre free pistol.
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