Ruchita Vinerkar climbs to top spot in National selection trials

Vinerkar beat qualification topper Shri Nivetha by 0.8 point in women’s air pistol in the sixth National Shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Ruchita had booked a place in the final by pipping Harveen Srao 16x to 14x after the two had tied on 570.

Ruchita Vinerkar of the Railways caused a coup, as she climbed to the top spot after qualifying in the eighth place, and beat qualification topper Shri Nivetha by 0.8 point in women’s air pistol in the sixth National Shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.   It was Shri Nivetha who led by 0.7 point before the last four shots in the final. However, Ruchita came up with 10.5 on the next two shots to take a 0.9 point lead. On the last two shots, it was a bit of an anti-climax owing to the low scores by both the shooters, Ruchita had 18.6 to 18.7 by Shri Nivetha, which saw her prevail with the earlier lead. Ruchita had booked a place in the final by pipping Harveen Srao 16x to 14x after the two had tied on 570. In fact, Priya Raghav also had the same score and a better score of inner-10s at 18x.

READ: 2022 C’wealth Games: Bangladesh calls for shooting’s inclusion The 582 that she shot in qualification, which was six points better than the next best, should do a world of good to the averages for Shri Nivetha, who had been part of the national team but had lost her place owing to intense competition. Shikha Narwal took the third place ahead of Yuvika Tomar, who went on to take the second place among the juniors behind Aadhya Tayal. Shikha herself won the youth competition, with a 5.3 point margin over Kanishka Dagar. In men’s 25-metre centre fire pistol, Yogesh Singh topped with a score of 582.  

The results: Men: 25m centre fire pistol: 1. Yogesh Singh 582; 2. Pankaj Yadav 578; 3. Arpit Goel 578. Women: 10m air pistol: 1. Ruchita Vinerkar 237.6 (570); 2. P Shri Nivetha 236.8 (582); 2. Shikha Narwal 216.8 (573). Juniors: 1. Aadhya Tayal 242.8 (576); 2. Yuvika Tomar 235.0 (573); 3. Kanishka Dagar 216.7 (568). Youth: 1. Shikha Narwal 242.4 (573); 2. Kanishka Dagar 237.1 (568); 3. Sharvari Bhoir 217.9 (569).